


Head of a Lion

by Marvel_ously_Me



Series: The White Lion [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Magic/Energy Manipulation, Sentient Voltron Lions, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-01-16 15:42:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12345678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvel_ously_Me/pseuds/Marvel_ously_Me
Summary: Lee has grown and changed a lot from the girl who first appeared on the Galaxy Garrison roof. The strangers she met that night have now become part of her family, and her desire to protect them has helped her grow her powers exponentially. She and Keith have had some hiccups along the way, but they've only become closer.But now, in the wake of Shiro's disappearance Team Voltron is left scrambling to figure out what to do next. And with a new enemy gaining power in the Galra Empire, now more than ever Voltron has to be strong.As Keith takes on a new leadership role within Voltron, Lee struggles to support him while also fighting to keep her own head above water. But with the fate of the universe, and more importantly, her family's lives at stake, Lee is ready to step up to the challenge.**This fic follows season 3 of Voltron with my OC Lee





	1. Episode 1

**Author's Note:**

> So hello out there people of the internet. I'm afraid this is going to be a longer author's note, but all the need to know stuff I'll put here right at the beginning, and then whether or not you read the rest is your choice. So I am posting the first episode of season 3 today, but unlike with my other two stories, I will not be posting the rest of it today. I'll go into why later, but this will be the only chapter/episode out before season 4 comes out, so if you guys were excited to read more of Lee then I'm sorry but this is all I can give for now. I will be writing the rest, I have no intention of just dropping this story at all, I just couldn't manage to get it all done before season 4 came out. I can't say when the rest will be posted either, because I'm not sure when I'll get the time to write. So yeah, that's the super important stuff. If you want to read more details about why I'm not posting the rest, read on, if not go ahead to the story, and thanks for coming to read!
> 
> So, to be honest guys I probably could have finished all of season 3 and posted, and that was my first intention. This week I have off from university since its my reading week, and I was intending to use it to write up this fic entirely, but then other things came up, and it didn't leave a lot of time. I could have still done it, but I would have been rushing to get it all done. That's what happened with Heart of a Lion, I had to rush, and I'm still happy with it, but I think there is more I could have done if I had more time, and that's not fair to you guys, to me, and especially not to Lee. So, I took my time to write this one chapter when I got the urge to write, and that's what I'm going to do with the rest. I write this fanfic cause it's fun, and I like the story, not just because I put a deadline on myself, so I'm going to go back to doing that.  
> I won't be watching season 4 when it comes out tomorrow, because I don't want to watch it until I've finished this fic. It'll be torture to have to wait, and I'm sure I'll be seeing spoilers everywhere on the internet, but maybe that'll just motivate me to write faster. So there we go. I want to give you guys the best fic I can, so that's why I'm going to take my time. Hopefully even though it isn't all going to come out at once you all will still read, and enjoy Head of a Lion!

Lee flies through the debris field in her lion form, scanning the space around her carefully for any signs of Shiro. Keith in the Red Lion was a little ways away, and Lee knew that inside, Keith was watching Red’s scanners carefully in case they picked up any signal from Shiro. The Red paladin had been searching almost nonstop, whenever he had a moment of free time, and Lee joined him as often as she could. There had been no signs so far, and she knew it was getting to him; it was getting to all of them. 

_‘Let’s head back.’_ She heard Keith’s voice echo in her head, and saw the Red Lion turn back towards the castle. She followed suit, close on Red’s tail, and slipping into the hanger with them. As soon as it was safe to, she turned back to her human form, being there to meet Keith as he exited Red. He steps to the ground, glancing up and seeing her standing there. As soon as his gaze is on her, Lee opens her arms, and Keith walks into them, letting her wrap her arms tight around him. He slumps just slightly in her hold, and she gladly takes the extra weight. 

He sighed, squeezing her tighter for a few seconds, before letting go and stepping back. She could see him reigning in his emotions, putting up his strong face, and she struggled to hold back a sigh of her own. Instead, she smiled and entwined their hands as the two of them walked up to their rooms.

“I’ll swing by your room when everyone gets back, and we can head up together.” Keith said, pulling her using their entwined hands and dropping a light kiss on her lips. There would be a meeting later, after everyone was done with their respective missions, so they could all go over what they had accomplished, and see if they could figure out where to go next. Lee nodded in agreement, and after another few seconds and one more hand squeeze they separated, Keith heading into his room and Lee turning to walk to hers.

Her thoughts were swirling, and the second her door closed behind her, she was actively calming her mind. She settled on the floor, crossing her legs and getting comfortable, and began to empty her mind to slip into a meditative state. While she had been joining Keith to help physically search when she could, she was also taking any opportunity she could find to meditate, and try to locate Shiro that way. 

It was hard though. If it had been Keith who had been lost, she would’ve been able to use their connection to find him, but she and Shiro didn’t have any sort of connection like that. So instead she had been going through the Black Lion, to see if she could locate the paladin through his lion, but through Black she could also feel the faint presence of Zarkon. She had learned her lesson, and she wasn’t willing to get anywhere near Zarkon’s mind again, even though he was unconscious.

Through Black, she was able to get a faint sense of Shiro, almost like an imprint, and she had been using that to try and search him out, but she was getting weird results. Granted, she had never tried anything like this before, never tried searching the universe for one specific mind, but still. Every time she concentrated, trying to locate Shiro, she could never lock on to any one location or person. She would ping around to multiple places, never able to discern which one was the real Shiro, if any were. And she could never get a good look either; she had tried before, thinking she could at least rule them out if they weren’t Shiro, but as soon as she tried to see more, it got fuzzy, and foggy, and she couldn’t concentrate or see any more. 

Her eyes snapped open, thoughts interrupted as she heard a knock at her door. She blinked, taking a few seconds to gather herself and her bearings before she finally reacted to the knocking.

“Come in.” She called, and the door whooshed open revealing Keith, changed into his casual clothes. She didn’t think she had been at it for too long, but it must have been a while, because she didn’t think the others were going to be back right away and yet Keith was obviously here to get her for the meeting. 

“What are you doing on the floor?” Keith asked, grinning and pulling her to her feet when she held her hand out to him. As he pulled her upright, she purposefully leaned too far forward, tipping into him. She popped up to kiss the underside of his jaw, before stepping back, and twisting side to side to stretch away the stiffness. A satisfying series of pops signalled her back cracking, and she groaned in satisfaction. When she looked back at Keith he had an eyebrow raised at her, and she stepped back towards him, smiling.

“What did it look like I was doing?” She answered his question with another question, thereby side stepping having to answer at all. She hadn’t told Keith yet about what she was trying to do. She didn’t want to get his hopes up when she hadn’t been getting any sort of results. If she thought she was getting anywhere close to locating Shiro, she would tell him in a heartbeat, but all she had been doing was going in circles and getting nowhere. Keith was already struggling with their lack of progress in the physical search, he didn’t need to know about her failures locating Shiro on the telepathic level too.

“Well we better get going. Lance and Hunk are back, so everyone will be meeting up now.” Keith says, and so the two walk hand in hand to the meeting. Keith sits on the end of one of the couches, and Lee sits beside him. Hunk is sitting farther along on the couch, then Allura in the middle, Pidge, and Lance on the opposite side, while Coran is standing near the door. Lee pulls hers and Keith’s clasped hands over into her lap, bringing her other hand down to play with his fingers, or stroke along the back of his hand while everyone was talking about how their missions had gone.

Lee was content to just sit there, listening and playing with Keith’s hand, when Hunk brought up not having Voltron anymore. Keith’s hand clenched tightly in her grip, and Lee glanced up to see him frowning heavily.

“We don’t have Shiro anymore either. Everyone seems to have forgotten that.” He says, and out of her periphery Lee sees the others slump, but she doesn’t look away from Keith. He is facing down, resolutely not looking at any of them. Despite the fact that his hand is a tight fist in her grasp, he hasn’t pulled it away from her yet, so she just keeps stroking gently over his knuckles. 

Lee feels a sick feeling in her stomach, which only gets worse as Allura says they need to start thinking about finding a new Black paladin. Lee, along with everyone else, is shocked, her hold loosening as she stares at Allura blankly. Keith easily pulls his hand free from her slack grip, standing up in agitation.

“No. I’m going to find him. Shiro is the one person who never gave up on me. I’m not giving up on him.” Keith says, before spinning around and stalking out of the room. Lee ignores the slight sting she feels at Keith’s words, knowing that Shiro had been around a lot longer than she had. She knows, objectively, that Keith trusts her, but she resolves to ensure he knows she would never give up on him either. 

“Allura, what were you thinking? How could you even say something like that?” Lee asks, and the princess stares at the floor, clearly upset, clearly regretting that she’d said it, and the others are all looking upset too, and Lee knows she should stop, knows she should just stop, turn and leave like Keith, but she wants to give him a few minutes of space, and she can feel her anger building up, doesn’t think she **can** stop.

“Lee…” Allura says weakly, but Lee ignores her, the pain and anger and frustration of past few days finally boiling over. She stands up suddenly, unable to sit anymore, and the others seems to almost flinch back slightly but she doesn’t notice, because she still has more to say.

“You know when you were captured by the Galra, we had to decide whether or not to come after you. None of us wanted to leave you, but we all, even me, had to admit that it was smarter to stay as far away as we could. Allura, you’re my sister, and the last thing I wanted was to abandon you. I wouldn’t have, even if I had to go after you by myself, but I still knew you wouldn’t want us to. I knew it was dumb, and dangerous, and risky, and I said as much. But Shiro? All he said was ‘how are we going to save her’. He didn’t give up on you, even though we knew it was a trap, even though you were in the most dangerous place in the universe. And now, we don’t even know where he is, and you’re all ready to give up on him?” Lee rants, only pausing so she can catch her breath.

“No, I-…” Allura tries to take advantage of her pause, but Lee just steamrolls on; nothing is stopping her until she’s said her piece. 

“You’re my sister Allura, but they’re my family too. I would never, ever give up on you, and I won’t give up on any of them either. I’m not giving up on Shiro. And I can’t believe how easily you are. We’ve lost so much already, and you’re willing to just toss him away.” Lee spits, her voice choked up slightly, and she storms out before any of them can even attempt to say anything else. She heads straight for Keith’s room, barely waiting for the door to open before she is walking in. 

“Hey, what-..?” Keith is about to ask what happened, why she is here and looking so upset. She had tried to get her emotions under control on her walk over, but knew she’d done a terrible job. She was still angry, and frustrated, and sad, and starting to feel guilty, and she really didn’t want to talk about it, and looking at Keith she didn’t think he really wanted to either. 

“So I was doing some research before about humans, and different stress relieving activities and techniques they had.” Lee says, and Keith raises a brow at her, confused and surprised by her random statement.

“Umm, okay?” Keith replies, and she quirks a corner of her mouth at his bewildered expression; it’s cute. 

“Well one thing I came across was that animals were soothing. Soo…” Lee trails off, grinning, before she forms into her lion form. She keeps it small, to what the paladins had told once was the size of the lions back on Earth, and she tilts her head slightly, giving as close she can get to a smile in this form to Keith, who looks more puzzled. 

Deciding to just give up on trying to explain, Lee walks forward, nudging her head against his hip when she gets close enough. He still doesn’t do anything more than stare down at her, so Lee huffs, gently grasping hold of the fabric of his pants and tugging him towards his bed. She pushes at him until he sits, then pulls his legs up on the bed. Once he’s on top of it she hops up, curling up beside him with her head resting gently on his abdomen.

She settles in, getting comfy, and after a few hesitant moments Keith seems to get the idea, as he hesitantly lowers one hand, placing it lightly atop her head. She nudges up slightly into his hand, encouraging, and he slowly starts to run his hand over her head. As she does nothing to tell him off, in fact leaning into his touch he gets more confident, petting her. He scratches the top of her head, and they both become aware of the rumbling sound coming from her. 

“Are you purring?” Keith asks, and Lee blows a breath out through her nose.

 _‘What? It feels nice. Besides, you can’t tell me it’s not relaxing for you too.’_ Lee says telepathically, opening one eye and turning slightly to glance up at Keith’s face. He smiles, and she can see that he has in fact become less tense. 

“Yeah it’s nice. But I think I still prefer my regular girlfriend.” Keith says, and suddenly Lee is laying there, back to normal and grinning at him. She lays her head back onto his stomach, nuzzling her face into his soft t-shirt, and the warm, firm body underneath. Her one hand clenches in the hem of his shirt, while the other reaches out to hold his hand. Keith’s free hand moves to undo her braid, releasing her hair and playing with it. 

“You know I can’t purr like this.” Lee says, and Keith chuckles slightly, his stomach jumping beneath her cheek. He alternates between rubbing her scalp lightly with his fingertips, and running his fingers gently through her hair. Lee practically melts against him, her whole body relaxing. And she would feel guilty, being she had come to see if he was alright, but she could feel that he was less tense as well.

“I still like this much better. I appreciate what you were trying to do, but just being with you like this is relaxing to me.” Keith tells her, and Lee feels a rush of warmth in her cheeks and her chest. Keith continues his ministrations, and the two lay there for as long as they can.

 

Sitting at the table as Keith stalks away after his outburst, Lee is shaken. She wants to run after him again, wants to chase him down and comfort him and not have to deal with this situation anymore. But she looks up, and she sees the other paladins are frozen in shock, Coran and Allura are lost, and the leaders of the different planets are a range of surprised, angry and afraid. Kolivan has no expression, as per usual, but Lee thinks that somehow he still looks slightly unnerved. She knows that whatever is said next will determine whether these people will join their alliance or not, and so taking a deep breath, she stands from her seat. 

“Please, I ask that you forgive his outburst. He’s been under a lot of stress lately, and, well, I’m sure you all know how that can push you to the breaking point.” Lee begins, smiling at the dignitaries. They settle slightly, and the tension eases a bit. “But despite his harshness, he was right.”

“Lee!” Allura hisses as the tension sky rockets again. She looks to the princess, and she can tell that Allura thinks this will be like earlier, so she smiles reassuringly at her, pleading that she allows her to speak. Seeing that she is calm, and trusting in her, Allura nods, letting her go on.

“Not about Voltron, not exactly. It’s true, that Voltron can’t be formed at the moment. But it isn’t gone, not forever. Just for a little bit, while we figure some things out.” Lee speaks in a soothing, reassuring tone, which has a calming effect on the room. “Voltron will be back, and it will fight, but that isn’t the point.”

They all look at her curiously, and Lee knows she has to be very careful about what she says and how she says it. She doesn’t want to scare them off, scare them away from the idea of the alliance, but they need to know, they need to understand.

“I’m not sure how much any of you know about me, or my race. But, as far as I know, I’m the last remaining member of the Belinors. 10 000 years ago, Zarkon attacked, and he wiped us out. And Voltron was around then, too. Trust me, I know how easy it is to believe that it is all powerful. We did too. We believed that Voltron would never lose, would never be beat, that nothing would ever be able to stand against it. We believed that it would always be there to protect us. And so when it wasn’t, we weren’t ready. We weren’t prepared. We had weapons, we had warriors, we had defenses. We could have fought. But we didn’t think we’d have to, and so we were destroyed.” The table is in silence as they listen to Lee, enthralled by what she’s saying, and captivated by her voice.

“What will you do, if you go back to your people and tell them that Voltron is going to fix everything, Voltron will save them, Voltron will free them, if you build it up into a saviour, and it loses? What if they lose all hope, because you’ve told them Voltron can’t be beaten and then it is? If you choose to put all your hope in Voltron, to let it be the only reason you fight, then this alliance has failed before it’s begun, and we’ve already lost to Zarkon.” There is uncomfortable shifting from the dignitaries as she says this, and the leader from Puiga speaks up.

“Then what do we do?” He asks hesitantly, and Lee turns to him and smiles.

“You go back to your planets, and you tell your people that we’re going to fight. That we will stand beside Voltron against the Galra Empire. Tell them that we’re going to fight for ourselves, our families, our friends, our people. For the planets across the universe that we’ve never seen or heard of. Tell them that Voltron is strong, but so are we.” Lee finishes, hoping that what she said will be enough to convince them. She sits down, and silence reigns for a few moments as everyone thinks on all that’s she’s said. Luckily, Lee’s words have swayed the leaders into joining their alliance. Feeling an immense sense of relief, Lee tunes out of the rest of the proceedings, knowing there is no way she can sneak off now, but she is still worried about Keith.

As soon as she is able, she races off, knowing exactly where Keith would be. There had been a few times when she had found him in the Black Lion’s hanger, just staring at the Lion. And sure enough, when she walked in he was lost in thought, and didn’t even notice her enter. 

“So, everything turned out fine. They’re all joining the alliance.” Lee said, and Keith jerked, startled. He turned slightly, and seeing that it was just Lee, turned back around to continue to stare at the Black Lion. 

“Yeah, no thanks to me.” He replied sullenly. Lee walked up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head against his back.

“You’re a fighter, you’re not a talker. All of us know that, and we also know that you’ve been crazy stressed since Shiro disappeared. But, you have to know that we **all** want him back.” She says, and Keith sighs.

“I know.” He mutters. Lee squeezes her arms tighter, pressing herself right up against his back. She hooks her chin over his shoulder, gazing at the side of his face.

“Hey, we’re not giving up on Shiro. If we have to search every single planet and ship in the entire universe, just the two of us, we will find out what happened to him. We’ll find him Keith.” She says, and he turns his head to look at her. He leans in, and they kiss for a minute before Keith pulls back, turning back to face the Black Lion once again. Lee kisses his cheek, and he leans the side of his head against hers.

After a few more minutes they hear the rest of their group enter the hanger with them. They pause, standing back from them, and Lee and Keith wait to see what they are going to do. One set of steps comes towards them, and Lee turns her head slightly, making sure not to dislodge Keith. She sees Lance standing there, and when he looks over she smiles at him, giving him the barest hint of a nod to encourage him to speak. He does, and soon the others come up to stand with them as well, all of them talking and reassuring. 

Lee can feel Keith tensing up as they talk, and she hates the way the conversation is going as well, as they talk about missing Shiro but needing to move on, to focus on the mission, because they both know that everything their friends are saying is true. When they finish there is a pause, and Lee squeezes Keith lightly, letting him know that she’s there and she’ll support him no matter what he says next. 

“I know you’re right.” He says, and Lee feels the shuddery breath he lets out, even though he looks and sounds confident. “It’s time we figure out how to reform Voltron.”

Lee still hates this conversation, but as she looks up at Keith she knows that neither of them will ever give up on finding Shiro, and so she decides that that will have to be good enough for now. Keith looks back down at her, and she knows he reads every thought and emotion on her face. He doesn’t say anything just leans his forehead against hers, and Lee relishes this moment of peace; Keith right beside her and her friends, her family, around them.


	2. Episode 2

The team had gathered back in the lounge room where most of their meetings took place. Lee sat between Allura and Lance on the long couch. As the others talked about how to find a new Black paladin, she was watching Keith. He was leaning against the wall, across the room from them, and she knew he was trying to distance himself from the conversation. Still, she wished that didn’t mean that he also had to physically distance himself from them. Things started getting heated between Lance and Keith, but when Lance implied that he thought Keith was lying, Lee had to jump in.

“Hang on Lance, I was there too. I heard Shiro say he wanted Keith to lead. It was when we all got split up in the wormhole. Keith, Shiro and I were waiting on the Castle to come pick us up. Shiro was injured, and he said that if anything happened to him, he wanted Keith to lead Voltron. And I personally think Keith could be a great leader of Voltron.” Lee says, sending a smile Keith’s direction. His brows furrow, not smiling back, and Lee falters slightly, her own smile dropping.

“Yeah, well, you would. You always take his side on everything.” Lance mutters, sounding angry, bitter, resentful, Lee can’t place the exact emotion but she turns to him in shock, because it is definitely something negative and it’s directed right at her. Eyes wide, mouth dropped open she gazes at the Blue paladin standing beside her. He is resolutely avoiding her gaze, glancing at her for just a second, during which she thinks she gets a glimpse of hurt on his face before he is looking away again. Lee feels her heart sink, swallowing hard as guilt starts to form, but before she can do anything Keith is speaking up again, and now he sounds angry. 

“You want the job so badly, you can have it!” Keith exclaims. Having pushed off the wall, he glares at Lance, the two appearing to square off. Everyone starts speaking up, putting themselves forward as an option to pilot the Black Lion. Even Allura says that she will try to pilot the Black Lion, and Lee looks up, the only one still sitting. She looks at all of them standing in front of her, Hunk, Pidge, Lance, Allura, all who want to try and pilot the Black Lion. Then, she leans around and spots Keith, still standing near the wall, separated from them, the only one expressing the desire to not be the leader. Lee bites her lip, because she has a bad feeling telling her that this isn’t going to go the way any of them really want.

 

Lee stands by Keith, the two of them watching as one by one the other all attempt to get the Black Lion to respond. As nothing continues to happen, Keith gets more and more tense beside her. Lee struggles to come up with some way to comfort him, something to say, or do, but there’s nothing. Both of them already know deep down what the outcome will be; this is just a formality.

“Keith, the Black Lion hasn’t responded to any of us. You have to try.” Allura says, and Lee turns to look up at his face, but he is staring at the Black Lion.

“Lee hasn’t tried yet.” He says, and she blinks in surprise.

“Keith…” She says, voice trailing off as he turns to look at her. She already knows that the Black Lion isn’t going to respond to her, and she knows Keith already knows this as well, but she sees the desperation, the pleading in his eyes for her to at least try, to make sure there is no other option, and so she swallows nodding. “Alright.”

Lee enters the cockpit, feels the familiar presence of the Black Lion in her mind. She slowly steps further in, sitting in the pilot’s seat. She runs her hands over the controls in front of her, hands grasping them as she closes her eyes.

 _‘Hey girl.’_ She says, and Black rumbles back in greeting. All of her time spent connected with the Black Lion trying to find Shiro has strengthened their connection. She smiles sadly, able to feel what the lion isn’t saying. _‘It’s not me, is it?’_

The question is one she already knows the answer to. The Black Lion mentally nudges her gently, and she can feel the slight sadness and disappointment at making her upset. 

_‘No, it’s okay. I only wish that you could respond to me, because I know how much he doesn’t want it. I know my place isn’t as a paladin.’_ Lee reassures the lion, who chuffs at her. She smiles slightly, but only for a second, because she knows that she will have to go back down and face Keith’s disappointment and resignation. Black purrs reassuringly, her presence enveloping Lee in warmth, and Lee can’t help but smile at the strange sort of telepathic hug. It ends, Black receding, and Lee knows she can’t delay the inevitable any longer. Still she hesitates, sitting in the chair.

 _‘Go.’_ Black instructs, gentle but firm, and Lee sighs, before standing up. She runs her hand along the arm of the chair as she leaves. As she exits the Black Lion, she looks up at the group gathered before her. Her gaze skids along them before she lands on Keith’s face, and she can see that he is already resigned to it, that he is just waiting for her to confirm. Stopping just a foot away from him, she meets his eyes before slowly shaking her head. Any last shred of hope disappears, and he just looks lost, and sad, and resigned, and Lee hates herself for not being able to stop that look on his face. But she can’t because all along she knew, like he knew, like all of the others, secretly, deep down already knew, that this was what was going to happen.

Lee watches as the Black Lion lights up, as it comes awake and roars. She knows this should be a happy moment, or at least a positive one, because now hopefully they are on their way to being able to form Voltron again. But as she watches the Black Lion lower its head, sees Keith standing inside, Lee instead has to fight not to cry.

It is silent, as Keith looks up at them, the others all staring right back. His gaze flicks to meet Lee’s, and her heart constricts in her chest at the look in his eyes. She steps forward, is reminded of a moment not too long ago, so similar to this. Her waiting on Keith as he exited a lion, the Red Lion then, after an unsuccessful search for Shiro. The look in his eyes then; loss, despair, hopelessness; the same look in his eyes now. And so she does what she did then, the only thing she can do. She opens up her arms, wrapping them around him and pulling him close. 

His arms stretch around her, tugging her impossibly closer as he lowers his head to bury it in the side of her neck, his face hidden from the rest of them.

“I’m proud of you Keith. I wish you were getting the job under better circumstances, but congratulations.” Allura says, and Keith’s hands clench into the back of Lee’s shirt. Pidge and Hunk echo Allura’s congratulations, and Lee can feel Keith’s harsh breath against her skin.

“I’m sorry.” She whispers to him, too quiet for anyone else to hear, and then suddenly he is pulling away from her, to stare at all of them. 

“No.” He says, and she isn’t sure if he’s talking to them, or to her, but maybe both. “I don’t accept this.”

“You must. The Black Lion has chosen you.” Allura says. Lee stands, Keith only a few feet in front of her, but it feels like the distance between them is impossibly far. She is frozen as her mind whirs, completely unsure as to what to do. Keith had pulled away from her embrace, away from her touch, away from her. Did this mean he didn’t want to be near her? Or was it just the moment? Lost in her thoughts as she is, she only snaps out of it when she feels a presence step up beside her, sees a blue armour clad arm reach out, clasping Keith’s shoulder. Lee lets out a silent sigh of relief, because while she didn’t know what to do or say to reassure Keith, luckily Lance did. She glances up at the Blue paladin, catching his eyes for a brief second before he looks away from her. She resolves to catch him when they have a moment; there are some things she needs to clear up with him.

 

Lee waits with the paladins and Coran as Allura is off trying to pilot the Red Lion. The room is silent, the atmosphere tense, and none of them are looking at each other. This time, although still not sitting with them on the couch, Keith is leaning against the platform right beside the couch. Lee hesitates, looking towards him, but he doesn’t look up, lost in thought as he stares at the floor. She bites her lip, before moving to sit down beside Lance. There is a foot or so of distance between them, and out of the corner of her eye she see the Blue paladin glance at her in surprise, but nothing is said, and so they all wait in silence.

The door whooshes open, and they all look up. By the look on Allura’s face, they all know the outcome. It is confirmed when she says that they must look for a new paladin again. Lee gazes at Allura, not at all convinced by her saying she was fine. She makes a note to talk to Allura if she has the chance, to see how she really is, and realizes she is beginning to get a list.

 

The tension in the room seems to have dissipated slightly, as the entire group sits around the room, all of them now gathered on the couches. Suddenly a message from the leader of the planet Puiga comes through on their screen, asking for urgent help. Everyone jumps to their feet, the slight relaxation abruptly gone as everyone is tense again. They all rush up to the control room, and Keith hesitates. Lee steps forward, not reaching out to him like she wants to, as she is still unsure from earlier.

“Keith, I know you can do this. I believe in you.” Lee says, and she smiles reassuringly at him when he turns to face her. He clenches his jaw, eyes sliding to the side for a second before he looks back, and she sees the resolve on his face. He steps forward, one hand going to her cheek to pull her into a quick, hard kiss before he turns, and then he is gone, taking off in the Black Lion.

As Lee turns to look at the screens, she sees the Yellow and Green Lions on either side, but no Blue Lion. Lance tells them that the Blue Lion isn’t responding to him, and Lee looks over to Allura worriedly. Suddenly on the screen they see how they’ve been ambushed. Allura tells Coran they need to get there immediately, before moving to go and see what’s going on with Lance. 

“I’m coming too.” Lee says, and Allura nods before the two girls take off for the Blue Lion’s hanger.

When they race in they see that the Blue Lion has it’s barrier up, and is not allowing Lance through. They stop beside Lance, and Allura asks him what’s going on. Lance starts to speak, saying how maybe he isn’t meant to be a paladin, and Lee feels her heart break a little bit, because Lance is a good, valuable member of their team and apparently they haven’t made that clear to him. He is interrupted by a lion roar, and they all look around, because it didn’t come the Blue Lion. 

Lance races off towards the Red Lion’s hanger, and Lee knows that this is her chance to talk to him. Before she takes off after him though, she turns to Allura.

“The Blue Lion will need a pilot you know.” She says, and Allura whips around to look at her. She blinks rapidly, and Lee knows she is about to protest, so she steps forward, and puts her hands on Allura’s shoulders. “You can do this.”

She then turns, and races out towards the Red Lion’s hanger. She bursts in just as Lance is stepping into the Red Lion.

“Lance wait!” She calls, and the paladin pauses, turning back to look at her. She can see him begin to step back, knows somehow that he thinks she is going to take this from him. “Will you take me with you?”

“What?” He asks, and she knows they don’t have the time to stand around when their team needs help. He must realize it too, because he nods suddenly. “Yeah, okay, let’s go.”

The two enter the Red Lion, Lance seeming to hesitate before taking a seat. Lee comes up to look over his shoulder, standing beside the pilot seat. Lance pilots the Red Lion out of the Castle and straight towards the battle.

“Lance, listen, I think we need to talk.” Lee says, and she can see his hands tighten on the controls.

“Look Lee, if this is about before, and what I said, then I’m sorry.” Lance replies, and Lee’s eyes widen.

“No, Lance, I’m the one who has to apologize. I’m sorry if I made it seem like I was only ever on Keith’s side. It was never my intention, but after you said, that I realized how much it looked like that was the case. It’s like I just, lose control almost. I get heated, emotional, and I lose sight of reason sometimes. I always feel terrible afterwards, and I know it’s no excuse but…” Lee trails off, unsure as to how to get her point accurately across. 

“You love him.” Lance states, and Lee smiles slightly.

“Yeah, I do. But, I hope you know that I meant what I said when I called you guys my family. I care about all of you. I care about you, Lance. You’re family to me. And I’m sorry if I ever did anything to make it seem like that wasn’t true. I think you’re a great paladin. You’re smart, and brave, and an incredible shot, and you deserve to be a part of Voltron.” Lee says, and before she can continue Lance is interrupting her.

“Whoa there Lee, better stop there before Keith gets the wrong idea and beats me up.” Lance tries to seem nonchalant, but she hears how his laugh is shaky, and can see that they are coming up on the battlefield, so she lets it go.

The battle rages on, the paladins faring better now that Lance has joined them. The 4 lions continue attacking the Galran forces, until suddenly the Blue Lion shows up, Allura piloting it. The 5 lions gather, but before they can even attempt to form Voltron, the Galra forces retreat. The lions fly back to the castle, and Lee and Lance exit the Blue Lion.

“You did really good out there Lance.” Lee says, and he shrugs, one side of his mouth pulling up in a half smile.

“Thanks. Red flies different than Blue did, and I’m sure I wasn’t anywhere as good as Keith but-…” Lee cuts him off before he can say anymore, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, don’t do that. You don’t need to compare yourself to anyone.” She tells him, but Lace isn’t looking completely convinced. So, Lee decides to try another way. “Besides, who needs any other pilots when they have you, right?”

They both laugh as Lee references something he said when they first met. Lance seems to be in slightly higher spirit now, so she let him go, knowing that there isn’t anything else she can say now to make him feel any better. They part ways, and she sees that Lance is headed toward the Blue Lion’s hanger. She lingers in the Red Lion’s hanger, and she bites her lip. She heads for the changing area, where they keep weapons and armour. That is where her armour is, and she has a bad feeling inside that she may soon need it. She enters the room, only to see Allura standing inside wearing paladin armour with pink markings. 

“Hey Allura.” She greets, and the princess turns, smiling when she sees Lee standing there.

“Oh, Lee! What do you think?” She asks, spinning around once. Lee sees the nervousness in her smile as she waits for her opinion. She walks closer, pulling the older girl into a hug.

“I think you look like a real paladin. And I think your dad would be really proud of you.” Lee tells her. 

“Thank you Lee.” Allura whispers, squeezing her back tightly. They hug for a few moments longer, before pulling back. The two girls grin at each other before Allura moves to leave the room, headed back towards the Blue Lion’s hanger. Once she’s gone Lee moves to where her suit of armour is stored. She debates whether or not she will actually need it, but when the bad feeling flares, she decides better safe than sorry.

She pulls the armour on, and it fits snugly and comfortably over her white body suit. The armour feels just like it did last time: heavy, but strong. It makes her feel powerful. She puts the helmet on, suddenly wondering whether she will be able to transform wearing it. She closes her eyes concentrating, and with a flash of light she rematerializes as her lion form. Nothing feels different than usual, so she transforms back, and sure enough, everything is fine. She is still wearing her armour. She grins, taking her helmet back off and just holding it.

Suddenly, she hears Coran announce that the Black Lion is leaving the castle. Heart in her throat, Lee races towards the nearest hanger, the Blue Lion’s hanger. Allura asks what he is doing, and Lee listens intently. When she hears Keith say that he put a tracker on Lotor’s ship, and that this is how he leads, she can’t help the thrill of pride that accompanies the worry she feels.

She hopes that the team will be able to come together and adjust to their new roles easily. But, if not, well she’ll tag along just in case they need her help. After all, even if she isn’t a paladin, team Voltron is her family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so there was episode 2. Hope you guys enjoyed reading it, I certainly enjoyed writing it. So how did you guys like Lee's bonding moment with Lance. He hopefully should remember this one lol. And not to worry, I'm hoping to fit in moments with Pidge and Hunk as well. I'm not too sure when the next chapter will be up, but I'm thinking (hoping) no more than 2 weeks. Don't hold me to that, but yeah. Until next time!


	3. Episode 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, here we go, I'm back with another chapter! Sorry for the long wait, I've been caught up with all sorts of essays and tests and last assignments to do since the semester is practically over. It's coming up on the exam period, so I'll need to be studying, but since there are no classes I should still have plenty of free time. I'm hoping to get at least a couple chapters written in the next few weeks, so we'll have to see how that goes.  
> On a side note, I wanted to ask your opinions real quick. Are the summaries for my stories alright? I'm just not super confident on how good they are, and I'm afraid they may be shit and turning people off from reading my stories. Also, Lee isn't coming off as a Mary Sue right? Just cause, she definitely isn't one, but as the author and creator of her character, I know a whole lot more about her than you guys do. She definitely has issues, and I've been trying to hint at them throughout, so I hope that's coming through.

“Hey Allura, mind giving me a ride? Keith kind of just took off without saying anything so…” Lee asks, and Allura grins as she meets her gaze.

“Oh, so since your boyfriend left without you, now you deign to spend time with me? I see how it is.” Allura teases, and the girls share a laugh, before Allura nods, and they race up into the Blue Lion. As Allura takes the pilot’s seat, Lee wraps an arm around the top of the chair. It’s not that she doesn’t think Allura will be a great pilot, and paladin, it’s just better safe than sorry.

_‘And sorry I would have been’_ Lee thinks to herself, tightening her grip on the chair, and wrapping her other arm around it as well. As they travel around the planet to reach Lotor’s ship, the Blue Lion suddenly bangs into the Yellow Lion, jolting the occupants of both. Lee listens as the paladins discuss going through with the plan or not, but she trusts Keith, and she trusts that if things were to go sideways, they are all skilled enough to handle things, new lions or not. This trust does little to ease the nervous feeling beginning to grow, though.

A lone fighter emerges from the Galra cruiser, and Keith moves forward to engage it. Lee’s nervous feeling gets worse, and she is just about to suggest they wait, or at least urge them to be cautious, when suddenly the Red Lion knocks the Black Lion off course. As the paladins scramble, the fighter disappears from view. It reappears, shooting at the Black Lion, and then chaos ensues. Keith can’t shake the fighter, so Blue, Green and Yellow all try to help.

Allura misses and hits the Black Lion instead, and the team is all over the place. They can’t land a hit on the fighter, while it keeps shooting at them. They aren’t doing well, not used to working with different lions, or a lion at all, or at working in this group. 

“Keith, do you want me to come out and help?” Lee asks over the coms. She doesn’t want to just stand and do nothing, but Keith is the leader, so the decision is his.

“No, I’ve got this. Just, everyone stay out of my way!” He exclaims, taking off after Lotor’s fighter himself. Lee bites her lip, trying not to feel hurt. She knows Keith is just overwhelmed and frustrated, so she won’t take it to heart, but it does still hurt that he won’t accept her help.

After failing to form Voltron, Lotor’s fighter breaks them out of formation before flying away. The others suggest leaving, going to regroup, but Keith is unwilling to give up.

_‘Keith, you don’t have to do this. We don’t need to stop Lotor today. It’s okay to need time to get used to these changes.’_ Lee speaks to Keith telepathically, knowing that he wouldn’t want the others to hear.

_‘We can do this. I can do this, Lee. I need you to believe me. Believe in me.’_ Keith responds, and Lee swallows hard. Her nervous feeling hasn’t gone away, but it hasn’t gotten any worse either, and she knows that Keith needs this.

_‘I do believe in you. I’ll always believe in you.’_ Lee tells him, and that is that. She readies herself for whatever may happen next, looking out of the cockpit and watching the Black Lion.

 

They chase the fighter towards another planet. While the others are focused on flying, and watching the fighter, Lee stares at the planet. There are tall rock spires pointing out, and lightning strikes are visible. The fighter flies straight into the clouds surrounding the planet, the Black Lion on its tail, and the other Lions following. Suddenly, the cockpit goes dark, all the screens getting messed up. Lee hears Pidge talk about the planet, and how it may be messing with their sensors, but then as Keith says something the coms start to cut out.

The Blue Lion begins to fall behind, and there is static on all the coms. Allura struggles to catch up with the others, when suddenly, a massive rock formation appears in front of them. Lee can only hang on for dear life as the Blue Lion goes bouncing around, knocking against rock formations and spinning around as Allura fights to try and pilot it. 

Lee is disoriented, having been jostled around as she had clung to the pilot’s chair. They had lost sight of the other paladins completely, and she had no idea what was going on now. The other Lions come back for them, and Lee breathes a sigh of relief. 

However, as Keith talks about stopping Lotor being more important than any one of them, Lee knows she can’t just say nothing. Keith is her boyfriend, she loves him, and she believes in him, but she doesn’t agree with what he’s saying. Remembering Lance’s words, she decides to say something.

“Keith, Allura is still new to being a paladin. You can’t expect her to be able to keep up with the rest of you when she’s hardly had any time to practice.” Lee says, and the coms fall silent. 

“Let’s go.” Keith says, before flying off in the Black Lion. Lance sighs, before urging them to stick together, and they all catch up to Keith. The paladins mention how it feels like Lotor is playing with them, and how they have the creeps, and Keith instructs them to circle up, and fire when they spot the fighter. It’s silent, and tense, and Lee feels her nervous feeling flare up suddenly.

_‘Keith, I have a bad feeling about this.’_ She tells him, not wanting to break the tense atmosphere by speaking out loud.

_‘Not you too Lee. Come on, I thought you-…”_ Keith breaks off his thought as the fighter appears again, and he fires at it. As soon as he does there’s an explosion directly in front of him. Lee watches as the same thing happens to the Red Lion, and then the fighter appears in front of her and Allura. Her brain whirs as she tries to figure out what is happening, but before she can Allura is firing. An explosion knocks them backwards, same as the others, and the fighter comes right at them. Allura quickly takes off, but the fighter remains on their tail, chasing them down.

 

As the Blue Lion begins rolling out of control, Allura tries to call the other paladins for help over the coms, but there is only static. They go flying into a tangle of rocks, and Allura manages to hide them before Lotor can find them. The fighter flies out of sight, and the two girls are left fighting to catch their breaths. 

“Allura, are you okay?” Lee asks, and she hears the princess’s breath get caught in her throat. 

“I-I am fine, Lee. What about you?” She answers, and Lee can hear the shakiness in her voice.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Lee says, and then she hears the princess begin to breathe faster, recognizing that she is beginning to panic. Lee walks around to crouch in front of Allura, placing her hands on the other girl’s shoulders. “Hey, hey, it’s okay, we’re fine right? We’re okay. Just take a deep breath Allura, everything is going to be fine.”

“No, Lee, everything is going wrong. I don’t know what to do.” Allura admits quietly, and Lee smiles at her.

“Just hang on a second, okay? I’ll talk to Keith, let him know what happened. He’ll find us, you don’t need to worry.” Lee reassures, and Allura nods, calming slightly.

_‘Keith?’_ Lee reaches out mentally for him, and he immediately responds.

_‘Lee! Are you alright?’_ He asks, and she smiles.

_‘Yes, Allura and I are both fine. Lotor chased after us, and we had some bumps, but Allura managed to pilot us into a hiding place, and Lotor didn’t spot us.’_ She informs him.

_‘Right, I’m glad both of you are okay.’_ He says sheepishly, and Lee bites her lip to stop a laugh from escaping. _‘I’m going to fix this Lee. I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you. I’ve always trusted you when you’ve said you had a bad feeling about things, because you’re always right, and then this time I just…’_

_‘It’s okay. You’re new to being a leader. There’s going to be mistakes. I know you must be feeling under pressure, and like you have to be perfect, but none of us expect that. And, you should know that you never have to try and put up a strong front to me, Keith.’_ Lee says, and there is a slight pause.

_‘I know.’_ He says it softly, but she feels warm inside as she feels the truth in it. _‘You and Allura just stay put, okay? I’ve got Lance with me, and we’ll find you guys.’_

“Lee? Lee, what is he saying?” Allura asks, pulling Lee from her mental conversation. She looks to Allura, seeing the nervous look on her face.

“He said for us to stay put, and that they’ll find us.” Lee says, and Allura nods slightly. Her gaze drifts to look out of the cockpit, and she tenses up.

“Allura? What is it?” Lee asks, and Allura gulps.

“I do not know if we can stay put.” She says, and Lee stands, turning to look out the window. She sees Lotor’s fighter flying by outside, clearly still looking for them. The two girls are tense, until the fighter passes out of view again. Allura lets out a huge sigh, slumping down.

”I’ve got a plan.” Lee states, and Allura straightens, looking up at her. “I don’t think you’ll like it much.”

Allura stares up at her, her brows furrowing slightly, and Lee bites her lip before explaining.

“I can go out there in my lion form, and use that to try and draw him away. I can become the same size as the Blue Lion, and as long as he doesn’t get too close right away, he shouldn’t notice anything is off until I’ve already led him away from you. And hopefully, he may be intrigued enough to keep following me even after he realizes I’m not the Blue Lion.” Lee explains her plan, and just as she thought, Allura doesn’t like it.

“Lee, no! It’s too dangerous for you to go out there by yourself!” She exclaims.

“Allura, I’ve faced a lot more than one single fighter as my lion. Compared to some of the other things I’ve done, this really isn’t that dangerous.” Lee reasons, but Allura shakes her head. 

“But it’s Lotor! And-and this planet is affecting the lions, how do you know that it will not affect you as well?” Allura continues to protest, and Lee smiles as she understands the other girl’s true reason for protesting.

“We both know I can take care of myself. Why do you really not want me to go out?” Lee asks, and Allura looks down, refusing to meet her eyes any longer.

“I do not want to be left here alone. What if Lotor does not follow you, what if he finds me? I cannot pilot this lion, it won’t listen to me. If he comes for me, I will be unable to defend myself. Perhaps the Blue Lion made a mistake. Perhaps I am not meant to be a paladin.” Allura says, and Lee shakes her head, sighing. She flicks Allura’s helmet, directly over her forehead, and the princess looks up at her in surprise.

“The Blue Lion chose you for a reason. I don’t think that choice was a mistake. I know you can do this, but you have to understand, the Lions are not just ships to pilot. They aren’t like the castle, you don’t just get to sit there and tell them where to go. The Lions are alive, they have feelings, and thoughts, and their own will. You guide your lion, you don’t tell it where to go. Being a paladin is all about your connection with your lion. You have to connect with the Blue Lion, Allura.” Lee lectures, but still Allura doesn’t look fully convinced.

“But, how? How do I connect with the Blue Lion?” Allura asks, looking completely lost.

“You have to feel it. The same way you’re connected to the mice, and can communicate with them. The same way we were able to connect on the balmera. You just reach out, and feel. You connect.” Lee explains, and she sees that Allura still doesn’t fully understand, but there isn’t anything else she can say to help. It’s up to Allura now, she has to connect personally with the Blue Lion. Lee begins to head for the back of the cockpit, when Allura’s panicky voice speaks up.

“Wait! Where are you going?” Allura asks. Lee smiles reassuringly at the princess.

“I’m going to go and draw Lotor away. I know you can do this, but you need time, and you need to be alone to connect with your lion. I can buy you some time by leading him away. Just, stop doubting yourself, okay? The Blue Lion chose you, Allura.” Lee tells her, and though she is still hesitant, Allura nods.

“Be careful Lee.” She says, and Lee smiles.

“You too.” She replies, and Allura sits in the pilot’s chair. Lee exits the cockpit, but pauses before she actually goes outside.

_‘Keith, plans have changed. Lotor is still patrolling around here, and it’s only a matter of time before he finds the Blue Lion. Allura won’t be able to get away until she can truly connect with her lion. I’m going to go out in my lion form to draw Lotor away, so that Allura has the time to connect with the Blue Lion.’_ Lee mentally informs Keith of her plan.

_‘Wait, Lee, hang on a minute! We’ll find you, we’re gonna find you, you don’t have to do this!’_ Keith exclaims.

_‘She has to connect with her lion, and for that she needs time, and she needs to be alone. I’m not going to engage with him, I’m just going to lead him away. This is what needs to happen.’_ Lee states, no room for discussion. There is a tense pause, before Keith responds.

_‘Yeah, okay. Just be-…’_ Keith reluctantly agrees, but then Lee interrupts him.

_‘Careful, yeah I know. I will.’_ There is silence after Lee’s interruption, and she worries that she was too short with him, but then she hears him chuckle through the bond.

_‘I love you.’_ He says, and Lee smiles, warmth in her chest.

_‘I love you too.’_ She replies, and Keith goes silent. Lee engages the face mask of her helmet, coming down to seal her suit up. She pushes off the lion, using the spires to hide behind, and propel herself away from the Blue Lion. Once she is a suitable distance away, she waits, clinging to a rock outcrop to hold herself in place. She sees Lotor’s fighter a little ways away, and waits until it is turned away from her. She quickly forms into her lion form, adjusting to match the size of the Blue Lion, before flying past the back of the fighter, in the opposite direction of the Blue Lion.

She flies away, hoping that Lotor caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. She was hesitant to fly directly in his line of sight, since he may quickly see that she is not, in fact, the Blue Lion, and not follow her. She lands on a rock formation, looking back, only to see the fighter changing direction and heading directly for her. She pushes off the rock, quickly flying away. She uses all the different rocks around to weave in and out of, trying to ensure Lotor cannot get a clear view of her. Whether it works, and he thinks he is chasing the Blue Lion, or it doesn’t and he is simply curious, he continues to chase her. She has no com in her lion form, and so she can only wait until Keith telepathically contacts her to let her know what is happening.

Suddenly, Lotor shoots at her. Distracted, Lee is unable to dodge. The blast knocks her off course, and she slams into a rock formation. Lotor’s fighter pauses, hovering in plain view of her. They stare each other down, and a snarl takes over Lee’s face as she feels the pain from where his hit landed. He fires again, and she jumps out of the way. But when she looks back, she sees the fighter has turned and is headed back for where the Blue Lion was. 

Letting out a loud growl, she sends a blast of energy towards the fighter, forcing it to dodge to the side. She quickly flies towards it, arriving just as it stabilizes itself back on course. She reaches out with a paw, batting it off to the side, away from where the Blue Lion was. The fighter spins wildly and she chases after it. She continues blasting at it, and knocking it around, getting it farther and farther away. 

Finally, Lotor manages to get another shot off, hitting her in the chest. She yowls, pained and enraged. The fighter stops spinning, turning to face her, but can do nothing as she leaps at it. Her jaws clamp around the fighter and she shakes her head, whipping it back and forth. She throws it towards a rock outcrop which it slams into. It pauses, hovering, and they stare each other down. They are at an impasse, locked in a tense standoff.

_‘Lee, Allura managed to connect with her lion. We’re all back together, and we’re going to try forming Voltron again, we just need you. Think you can make your way to us?’_ Keith’s voice sounds in her head, and she is relieved to hear that everyone is safe and have found each other.

_‘Okay, I think I should be able to use our connection to find you guys, I just need to lose Lotor first.’_ Lee replies. She thinks of how best to lose the fighter, and suddenly a plan comes to mind. She quickly shoots at Lotor, who dodges the blast, taking off while he’s distracted. As soon as she’s out of sight she shrinks her form, wedging herself in a small crack. She watches as the fighter flies by, waiting a few moments longer to make sure he is gone. She focuses on her connection with Keith, using that to get a sense of where he is. After a few moments have passed she flies out from her hiding spot, following the connection towards Keith.

She flies quickly, soon arriving where the five lions are gathered together. She flies towards the Black Lion, energy flowing off of her as she changes form. She reappears in her armour, and the Black Lion flies forward, mouth opening to scoop her up. She hears Keith begin giving a speech over the coms as she rushes up to the Black Lion’s cockpit. She enters silently, not wanting to interrupt, staying at the back of the cockpit and simply listening to him speak. She can hear in his voice and his words, the true elements of a leader emerge, and she feels pride erupt inside her.

As Keith calls for them to form Voltron, Lee moves forward to hold onto his chair. The lions begin to form Voltron, and as they do, Lee leans down to drop a quick kiss on the side of his helmet.

_‘I love you. I’m so proud of you.’_ Lee tells him telepathically. He doesn’t respond, but she didn’t expect him to, the lions having formed Voltron and him concentrating on being the leader, being the head of Voltron. She holds tight to the chair, and Voltron shoots up out of the planet to confront Lotor and his troops. Voltron destroys all the other ships, but Lotor gets away. Keith decides to let him go, so they can face him when they’re prepared. As they fly away, Lee gazes down at Keith. Sure, he had made mistakes, but the way he learned from them, and the way he led them just then, she knew that he was already becoming a great leader of Voltron.

 

Later, after they returned to the ship, and all the lions had entered their respective hangers, Lee waited as Keith landed the Black Lion. As soon as he had, she slipped around the side of his chair, and sat herself on his lap.

“Wha- Lee?” Keith asked, and she reached up, removing his helmet and placing it aside. She reached up, one hand cupping his cheek while the other slides back into his hair. He wrapped his own arms around her waist, holding her on his lap so she wouldn’t fall off. The hand that was in his hair slid to the back of his neck, fingers twining into the strands there. She pulled gently, leaning up to kiss him, and catching the surprised grunt with her own lips. Keith quickly caught up, his arms tightening as he kissed her harder. 

Her hand dropped from his cheek to grab onto his shoulder, using that hold to bring her legs up on either side of him, straddling him on the chair. He bit her lip and she gasped, her hand clenching tightly in his hair as his tongue entered her mouth. They kissed deeply for a few minutes longer, until Lee began to feel one of his hands slowly drifting down. She felt a thrill of excitement run through her, but then a disapproving growl echoed through the cockpit. Keith’s hand froze, and Lee reluctantly pulled away from him. 

“What was that?” Keith asked, and Lee simply stared at him for a few moments. His hair was mussed from the helmet, and her hand, his lips were red, and his arms were still tight around her. She was sure she had a flush to her cheeks, could feel the heat, and knew her lips probably looked as kiss-swollen as his did. She shivered as she met his gaze, and then she felt a sharp mental nudge from the Black Lion. She sighed, reaching back to grab his hands and hold them, then stood up, pulling him with her. 

“The Black Lion was nicely telling us to get out.” She tells Keith, letting go with one hand to grab his helmet and hand it to him.

“Nicely?” He echoes, and she begins pulling him from the cockpit.

“Yeah. If we didn’t leave now, she was gonna just drop us out.” Lee replies, and the two exit the Black Lion, beginning to walk back towards their rooms. Luckily they don’t run into anyone else on their way there, as it would have been obvious what they had been doing. They reach Lee’s room and pause, Keith leaning down to kiss her. The kiss is short, sweet, and chaste, and when Lee enters her room she cannot stop the grin that takes over her face any more than she can stop the flushing of her cheeks, or the fast beating of her heart. 

_‘I love you too.’_ She hears Keith say through their bond. She is confused for a second, until she realizes he is responding to when she said it earlier, as the lions were forming Voltron. She smiles even brighter than before, basking in the warm happiness she feels inside.


	4. Episode 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys so here we are with another chapter! So, I'm home now for winter break, exams all done which means more free time! Unfortunately, my laptop has been trying really hard to give up on me, and it's gotten pretty bad the last couple weeks, so it's been really hard to be able to write. But, I was able to get this chapter done for you, and if it does give up the ghost I'm getting a new one for Christmas (but shh, it's a surprise :P) so at least I will be able to write more after that.  
> This chapter is a little shorter than the others, because Lee isn't really in most of the action of the episode. That's all I'm gonna say about it now though, so I don't spoil anything, so read on!

Lee stared at the screen in the control room in shock. The signal that the castle had picked up on was one she would have never imagined they’d get. The signal was an Altean one, from one of the king’s ships. A part of her wanted to be hopeful, in part because she knew how happy it would make Allura and Coran, and in part because even though not her people, it would still be more survivors from her home planet, and that meant something to her. But as much as she wished for it to be exactly as it appeared, she didn’t think it was very likely, or even possible. 

After all, how could there be another Altean ship around, with other Alteans alive after 10 000 years? Allura and Coran were alive because they were kept asleep aboard the castle ships, but the castle ship was one of a kind. A normal Altean ship wouldn’t have that sort of capabilities. And even if it did, what could have made them wake up now of all times? No, while she wanted to believe it was true, they had already faced those who used a fake distress signal to try and trick them. And while Rolo and Nyma’s ruse was vastly different from the use of an old Altean signal, the bad feeling she had was the same.

 

The castle ship flies to where the signal is originating, only to see a vessel trapped in some sort of portal. When Lee sees the portal she only gets more nervous. She feels her energy rise within her, has to consciously rein it back in and under control. She looks over at Keith, and the two exchange suspicious looks. 

_‘What do you think Lee?’_ Keith asks her opinion telepathically, not wanting the others to hear their conversation in case it starts some sort of argument. Lee bites her lip, glancing back towards the portal. She feels a spike of unease run through her, and turns back to Keith.

_‘I…I want to believe but, I have a bad feeling. Something about that portal doesn’t feel right. My energy reacted to it, and I’ve never felt that with any of the other times I’ve had my bad feeling. Not like this.’_ Lee tells Keith what she’s feeling, and he nods, his eyebrows furrowing.

_‘Okay. I trust your judgement, so we’ll have to be careful, but we still have to investigate it. We need to figure out what’s sending that signal either way, and we owe it to the princess and Coran to at least check if it’s more Alteans.’_ Keith decided, and Lee smiles at him. She doesn’t feel any less nervous, or uneasy, but she can still admire how Keith is becoming more thoughtful, and less rash as a leader. 

 

Pidge suggests sending a probe over to try and figure out what the portal is, and Keith tells her to do it. They all watch as the probe approaches the ship, and Pidge, Hunk, and Coran all discuss what sort of energy the portal is made of. Coran discovers it's quintessence, and then the probe disappears through the portal. While the others remain nervous, Allura is determined to go and investigate the ship, and unwilling to let her go by herself, they decide to form Voltron in order to check it out.

“Hey Lee, you want to come with me in Black?” Keith asks as all the paladins get ready to head for their lions. Lee smirks at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, not gonna take off without me this time?” She asks teasingly. She sees a faint flush crawl onto his cheeks as he sheepishly looks away from her, one hand raising to clasp the back of his neck.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” He apologizes, and Lee grins. She puts a hand on his shoulder and leans in to give him a kiss on the cheek. He drops his arm, looking down at her only to smile in relief when he sees her teasing grin. The two head to the Black Lion, Lee taking her customary spot behind Keith’s chair, and after Voltron is formed they fly towards the portal. Lee knows the others are speaking, but as they get closer to the portal she finds she can’t focus on their conversation. Her bad feeling gets worse, her energy is trembling inside her, and she has to cling to the back of Keith’s chair as a wave of dizziness overcomes her. They get closer and closer, and Lee feels her knees threatening to buckle as her head spins. She struggles, forcing herself to focus on anything else, and she tunes back in to hear Pidge saying that her sensors are going crazy, and see the energy of the portal directly in front of them before her legs give out, and she collapses behind Keith’s chair. 

She lays on the floor of the Black Lion, feeling a curious lack of sensation. The feeling of her energy reacting is gone, and as she tries to concentrate a spike of panic runs through her when she can’t feel her energy inside her. Her bad feeling from before has dulled, replaced by the other sensations overwhelming her at the moment. She feels like she is spinning rapidly, even though some part of her knows she is laying still on the floor, and there is a roaring in her ears. As soon as that thought registers, she realizes the roaring is actually coming from inside her mind, the Black Lion reacting to her distress. The roar echoes through Keith’s mind as well, and he stops Voltron just before entering the portal. 

He turns to look at Lee, to ask if she heard the Black Lion as well, only to see that she isn’t standing there. He leans around his chair, seeing her laying on the floor. He hadn't noticed before as she had collapsed silently, and he was listening to the other paladins. He yells her name, getting no response from her, but the others immediately react to the distress and panic they can hear in his voice. He instructs them to move away from the portal immediately, and as soon as Voltron has begun to back away from the portal, Keith is out of his seat and kneeling on the floor beside Lee. 

 

Lee begins to become aware of her surroundings again, the black that had been encroaching on her consciousness receding slowly. She feels a hand gently run down the side of her face, and cracks her eyes open to see Keith looking down at her with worry and concern etched all over his face. He smiles slightly as he notices her eyes open, although neither emotion fades from his eyes. 

“Lee, are you okay?” He asks, and she blinks, looking around to see she is being cradled on his lap, as they are both on the floor in the Black Lion. With a gasp she suddenly remembers how she got there, and she reaches for the energy inside her. Relieved tears spring to her eyes as she feels it respond to her, and she sees panic flash across Keith’s face as he sees her tears. Before he can start to freak out, Lee throws her arms around his neck, and she feels his own clench around her, pulling her tight against him.

“I’m okay, I’m okay, I swear.” She murmurs, and feels his arms tighten a fraction, before he reluctantly pushes her away so he can look her in eyes.

“What happened?” He asks, and she shakes her head, tears drying as her fear and relief is replaced by confusion. 

“I don’t know. It was something about the portal though. I started feeling dizzy and weak as we got closer to it, and then when we were right at it, I collapsed. And I-I couldn’t feel my energy. It was like it was gone, like I was… empty.” Lee says, and a shiver runs through her as she remembers the feeling. It was by far one of the worst things she’d ever felt in her life. Keith clenches his jaw, staring down at her before finally responding to the others.

“Whatever that portal is, it affected Lee really badly. There’s no way I’m letting her anywhere near it again. We’re going back to the castle.” Keith decides, and he can hear the others speaking up, some protests, some questions, but he speaks over all of them. “We’ll at least take Lee back to the castle, and we can figure out everything else once we’re sure she’s okay.”

This makes the others fall silent, in agreement that Lee’s wellbeing being is more important. Voltron flies back to the castle, the lions splitting up to go back to their own hangers. Everyone rushes to the Black Lion’s hanger, where Lee and Keith wait for them. Keith is embracing Lee, and she leans into him, feeling exhausted. The others crowd around, asking if she’s alright, but she reassures them that other than tired, and confused, she is alright. 

They discuss what to do next, and Keith is adamant that whatever they decide Lee will stay far away from the portal. Lee is all too happy to agree, and it’s the lack of opposition about being left behind that shows the others how truly shaken up she is. Despite this, Allura is still dead set on investigating the portal more, since only Lee was affected. The others are more hesitant, but eventually they agree that it still needs investigating. The other paladins head back to their hangers to head out once more, but Lee stops Keith before he can enter Black again.

“I know I don’t really need to say it anymore, but you’ll be careful right?” Lee asks, and Keith smiles gently at her. He lifts a hand to cradle the side of her face, and she closes her eyes, turning into his touch. He leans in and kisses her on the forehead, and she opens her eyes again as he pulls away.

“I’ll be as careful as I can be.” He promises, and they grin at each other. 

“I guess that’s all I can ask.” She responds, and they lean in to exchange a soft kiss. Leaning back only enough to speak, her lips brush against Keith’s as they form her words. “I’ll see you when you get back then.”

Keith kisses her again, before pulling away to enter the Black Lion. Lee leaves the hanger, popping up into the control room to watch the monitors with Coran. The coms and video feeds with the paladins cut out as they enter the portal. Coran cries out, and Lee feels her heart jump into her throat as Voltron disappears from view. She reaches out for her connection with Keith, and is able to locate it. It feels strange, like Keith is extremely distant, and she can’t communicate with him, but the connection is still there, so she knows that whatever happened to them, they’re still alive. She tells Coran as much, and they wait in tense silence a few minutes longer, but with no ways of contacting the paladins, there isn’t much for them to do but wait.

With her lingering unease from what happened to her, and now her nervousness over the paladins, Lee feels too anxious to just sit and wait. Remembering the empty feeling she experienced at the portal, the absence of her energy, makes her feel panicky, and so she leaves Coran at the controls to head for the training room. She asks him to let her know if he hears anything, and he agrees.

 

As soon as she is in the training room she concentrates, her energy quickly rising up, and she changes to her lion form. Some of the panicky feeling fades as she is able to do so as easily as she normally can, and she spends a few minutes just growing and shrinking in her lion form to feel her energy flowing through her. Once she feels reassured enough, she begins the training levels, fighting the gladiator. She fights in her lion form, unwilling to give up the feeling of using her energy just yet. 

She loses track of time as she fights, still hearing nothing from Coran, and eventually the exhaustion from before catches up to her. She releases her lion form, turning off the gladiator once back in her normal form. She heads for her room to shower away the sweat and grossness from training, and decides she’ll lay down for just a few minutes, and then head back up to wait with Coran. 

She wakes up later when she hears her door whoosh open. Her lights turn on, and she blinks rapidly as her eyes fight to adjust. When she manages to keep them open, she realizes she is laying on her bed on her side, facing the wall. She looks over her shoulder to see Keith hovering in the doorway.

“Hey.” She murmurs, and she reaches a hand out towards him. He steps into her room, door closing behind him. She realizes he isn’t wearing his paladin armour, briefly wonders over exactly how long she had been sleeping, but discards that thought in favour of focusing on him. He steps to the side of her bed, reaching out to take her hand. She pulls lightly on him, letting go to allow him to take off his boots and jacket. He gets into the bed with her, as she turns to face him more.

“What happened?” She asks, and he sighs.

“It’s…complicated. Can I just tell you about it later?” He asks tiredly, and Lee’s brows furrow.

“Yeah, sure. Are you okay?” She looks at him, and he can’t help but smile, as he can see the concern on her face, but also how she is still partly asleep.

“I’m fine, just tired. Can I stay here tonight?” He asks hesitantly, but then feels silly as she smiles widely at him.

“Of course you can.” She murmurs, rolling back over to face the wall. She reaches back to take hold of his arm, pulling it around her waist then covering it with her own, and lacing their fingers together. He scoots up behind her, curving his body around hers protectively. He buries his face in her hair, which is still loose as she hadn’t bothered to put it back in a braid after her shower. He breathes in deeply, feeling the tension drain out of him as he releases the breath. 

_‘Love you Keith.’_ Lee’s sleepy voice says inside his head, and he smiles into her hair.

_‘Love you too Lee.’_ He responds, and as he feels her body relax against him as she falls asleep, he joins her, his own eyes drifting closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yes, what was up with Lee and her reaction to the portal? It has a lot to do with her powers, and I know I haven't gone into a lot of detail about how her power works, or about her people all that much. Given that the next episode mostly follows Shiro, I'm thinking that I'll use it to give you guys and Keith the opportunity to learn more about Lee. The chapter will probably be mostly just Lee and Keith talking, and Lee sharing more about herself and her powers (with a fair amount of cuteness and affection). So, hope you guys enjoyed!


	5. Episode 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so here is the next chapter finally guys. I'm so sorry! Just as I feared, my laptop gave up on me back in December. I got a new one for Christmas, but then I had to figure out a way to transfer all my important stuff onto the new one, so here we are. I'm am not going to make any promises about when the next chapter will be up, I'm not even going to mention when I think I may be able to work on it, because I always end up wrong somehow. So, instead, complete surprise for you when the next chapter will be up! In this chapter, you get to find out some of the circumstances surrounding Lee's appearance on Earth. I will warn you now though, what Lee tells Keith is what she remembers, and what she has been able to figure out for herself. She doesn't know all the details, and she may never learn them since the rest of those involved are gone. It's important to me that this stays as realistic as possible (she says when talking about a fanfiction about a show with robotic lions in space) and Lee isn't omniscient. She doesn't know all, so you won't either. But, you will get to know some, if you just read on! Hope you enjoy!

Lee looked around herself, but there was nothing but darkness. She struggled to remember what happened to lead to this moment. She could remember flashes, bits and pieces, but everything seemed jumbled, rushed. There was something coming, they were being attacked! She remembered fear and worry, Voltron was-was somewhere, and she wanted to go out and help. She wanted to do something, but they wouldn’t let her. They were leading her somewhere, and she didn’t know what exactly was going on, but she trusted them, so she went along, and then-…then nothing. Then she was alone, all alone with no one around. And her mind was as empty and blank as the darkness that surrounded her, and Lee felt overwhelming fear, and dread, because she didn’t want to be all alone again, she hated being all alone, and she could feel herself starting to panic.

But then she heard a faint voice calling her name, and she spun around until she could see a soft light starting to appear in the darkness. The voice got louder, the light got brighter, and she reached out towards it desperately. 

Then she awoke with a gasp, shooting upright to a sitting position. Her heart was pounding quickly, she was breathing heavily, and she could feel sweat gather along her brow. A hand was placed on her shoulder and she jerked, turning to see Keith sitting up beside her, a concerned look on his face. She looks past him, realizing they are in her bed, in her room, and abruptly she remembers him coming in after the mission, and them falling asleep together. She looks back towards him, and his brows are furrowed in his concern, so she smiles softly at him.

“Are you okay?” He asks, and she nods. He lifts his hand to brush some of her hair out of her face, so he can see her better. “Are you sure?”

They meet eyes, and she swallows, dropping her gaze to her lap where she is fiddling with the blanket. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up. Was I being loud?” She asks, keeping her gaze firmly downwards. 

“Uhm, not exactly.” Keith says, and Lee turns to look at him in confusion. At seeing her look he clears his throat before continuing. “Well, I heard you mentally, not out loud.”

Lee groans, dropping her head into her hands. “Now I’m even more sorry. I definitely didn’t mean to invade your mind and wake you up just because I was having a bad dream.”

“Hey, come here.” Keith murmurs, reaching out and guiding her to lay her head on his chest as he moved them both to a reclining position. Lee gladly buried her face in his chest, and for a moment he simply strokes her hair and allows her to hide her face. But then he was gently tilting her head, so he could see her face, and meet her eyes. “You didn’t invade my mind. I woke up because it felt like something was wrong, but I couldn’t tell what. When I woke up I realized it was coming from the bond. It felt like you were scared or upset or something, so I opened up my mind, and it was only then that I was able to hear you.”

“What did you hear?” Lee asks, the two of them maintaining eye contact even though all she wants is to hide her face again. Keith frowns lightly, his brows dropping.

“It was mostly just about, not wanting to be alone. And I didn’t know what to do, but I had to do something. I couldn’t just leave you suffering from a nightmare. So, I called out to you over the bond, and I guess it worked cause you woke up.” Keith explains, and Lee smiles at him.

“It did work. Thank you, Keith.” She replies, and he smiles warmly back at her.

“No problem Lee, you don’t need to thank me. Do you-…” Keith’s smile drops and he bites his lip as he seems to consider whether or not to continue. Lee nods at him, encouraging him to finish his thought. “Do you get nightmares often?”

“Sometimes, after big battles or dangerous situations. But that one, it was more of a memory. I usually get one every little while.” She explains, and Keith studies her for a few long moments. She waits, expecting the questions she’s sure he has, but they don’t come. Instead, he leans forward to kiss her forehead.

“You feel like going back to sleep?” He asks, and Lee has to hold back the surprise that wants to be expressed on her face. 

“No, at least, not yet. I think maybe I’ll meditate a bit, center myself.” She begins to push herself up into a sitting position, putting a hand on Keith’s chest to hold him down when he tries to sit up as well. “You go back to sleep though. I already feel bad for waking you up, please don’t make me feel any worse by keeping you up too.”

Keith sighs, and she grins slightly, because they both know how she’s manipulating him, but he doesn’t argue. He settles back down, and Lee removes her hand. She waits until Keith has fallen back asleep before slipping into her mind. She meditates for a while, losing track of time, until she is abruptly brought out of her mind when she feels something touch her. She opens her eyes, looking down to see that Keith had curled into her in his sleep. His head is half propped on her thigh, and one of his arms lays in her lap, over her crossed legs.

She gazes fondly down at him, and has to bite her lip to hold back her reaction at his sleeping face. His hair is all over the place, and his face is slightly smushed from where he has it pressed up against her. It doesn’t look like a comfortable position though, and she’s sure his neck will be sore when he wakes up if she lets him stay that way. So, moving slowly and carefully, she lifts his arm off her, so she can uncross her legs, then puts it back down. She then gently lifts his head into her lap, and he snuggles in, a contented sigh leaving him. Lee runs her fingers softly through his hair, and the two remain like that.

 

Lee doesn’t know how long she sits there, content to just sit with Keith, and stroke his hair while he sleeps, when she notices him start to wake up. It starts when his arm tightens where it lies across her. Then a deep breath gusts in and out of him. He starts to shift, nuzzling his head deeper into her lap, and Lee just continues to run her fingers through his hair. Finally, he turns his head, looking up at her, eyes blinking open.

“Lee?” He asks, voice rough still with sleep. 

“Yeah?” She responds, and he just drops his head back into her lap.

“Nothing.” He says, voice muffled as his face is pressed against her. She scratches lightly over his scalp which causes him to push against her hand. She giggles, before quietly observing her boyfriend with a fond grin. He’s fallen silent again, but she knows he hasn’t gone back to sleep yet. Lee hates to break the peaceful quiet, but there are things that need saying, questions that need to be answered.

“You haven’t asked yet.” She states, and he shifts, bringing his face out of her lap so he can speak. She keeps playing with his hair, in part to apologize for starting this talk so soon after he’s woken up, and in part because she just likes the feel of running her fingers through his hair.

“About what?” He asks, still a slight rough quality to his voice, but sounding more awake and aware. 

“About last night. And, about everything really.” She answers, and she just catches the quiet sound of his sigh. He turns slightly so he can meet her eyes.

“I’ve told you before, your secrets are your own. You don’t need to tell me anything about what happened last night, I’m just happy I could help you.” He says, and Lee smiles down at him. She lets her fingers drift down the side of his face in a gentle caress, before returning them to his hair.

“I want to tell you though. I think I’m ready to talk about it.” She tells him, and he stares into her eyes for a few more moments, before apparently deciding she is telling the truth. He looks away from her, settling back so she can keep playing with his hair. Lee is grateful, because she does truly want to explain what happened last night, but it’s a lot easier to not have to meet his eyes as she does so. She takes a deep breath, and then begins.

“So, last night, the nightmare, it was really more of a memory. I get basically the same sort of nightmare, the same memory every once in a while, but it’s usually not so vivid unless something triggers it. The whole thing with the portal, that’s what triggered it this time. Last time it was triggered like this, it was the first night we fell asleep together, after you asked me to be your girlfriend.” Lee explains, and she feels Keith tense so she scratches at his scalp to calm him down.

“Relax, it wasn’t anything you did that triggered it. When we all got separated in that portal, we got knocked out. While I was unconscious, I pretty much relived the memory although not nearly as vivid or anything, I guess because I was unconscious and not asleep. But that, paired with the stress of everything, it would have triggered the nightmare no matter what. Our mental connection was still so recent at that point, that you couldn’t sense my nightmare. But since our bond has strengthened since then, this time you were able to feel it.” Keith huffs a laugh against her legs.

“So, we’ve had a bonding moment then?” He asks, and she laughs at his teasing tone. She leans down, practically folding in half to meet his eyes.

“Yeah. Lots.” She murmurs, and pecks him on the nose before straightening up. Her amusement fades, and the atmosphere becomes more serious.

“The nightmare always starts with the last night I spent on my planet. I was woken up in the night by my parents. They were in a rush, panicked, and I didn’t really know what was going on. The nightmare always makes things more confusing, more jumbled together, and it took me a while to piece together what really happened that night. I remember my parents rushing me to the meeting place in our village, and the Elders were there, and they all rushed me further in. I know, they were talking about an attack, about there not being much time, and I was trying to ask what was going on, but no one was answering my questions.” Lee pauses, gathering Keith’s hair to see if there was enough to braid. She decides to try, Keith staying quiet, and simply waiting.

“I know now, obviously, that it was the Galra they were talking about. I think that the Elders may have got a vision that night, and that’s how they were able to act in time, but there had to be more to it than that too. In the moment though, I had no idea what was happening. After we met up with the Elders, they brought me to an inner area where they would meditate to receive the vision that came with the birth of a child. They told me to stand in the middle, formed a circle around me, and then I could feel all their energies rising. There was a bright flash of light, and a feeling like my energy was being sucked into a tube, and then…darkness. And, I was completely alone. It was awful.” Here she has to stop, tears forming and voice getting choked up. Keith’s arm tightens where it’s wrapped around her legs, and he pressed his head into her. His other arm comes up, hand sliding under her shirt to rest on her lower back. The skin to skin contact grounds her, and she takes a deep breath, looking down to see she had managed to make tiny braid out of his hair. She unwinds it, before starting the process again, appreciating that he is giving her the space and opportunity to tell him in her own time.

“I’ve told you stuff about our powers, and about how the mental bonds are important to us. From the moment we’re born to the moment we die, we are never alone in our minds. We can always feel the presence of others, our friends and family, in the back of our minds. And in that darkness, there was no one. My mind was empty of anyone but myself, and it terrified me. It was strange though, in the darkness, because I knew time was passing, but I had no way of knowing how much, or how quickly. The next thing I remember after the darkness, is appearing on the roof of the Galaxy Garrison building with Lance, Hunk, and Pidge. Somehow, I knew Shiro was coming, even though I didn’t know it was Shiro at the time, just that it was important. It was really strange and disorienting, because I had no idea how much time had passed, I only had my instincts, and this vague sense of what I was supposed to be doing.” Lee explains, and she feels Keith take in a breath, pausing to see if he’s going to say anything.

“It must have been pretty confusing, and scary for you. I’m sorry, by the way, for how I acted when we first met. I was suspicious of you, when all you were trying to do was help.” Keith says, and Lee’s fingers still for a moment in his hair. She furrows her brows, fingers moving again, in long strokes from root to nape.

“You don’t have to apologize Keith, it made sense for you to be suspicious. You had no idea who I was then, or what my intentions were. Of course you wouldn’t trust me right off the bat. Besides, you couldn’t resist my winning charm for long.” The two of them laugh, and Lee is glad for it. She never feels forced to do, or be anything when she’s with Keith. She can just be herself, and that’s it.

“One good thing about all that time alone, was that I had plenty of time to think. And, I think that the Elders and my parents must have had an emergency plan in place long before that night. Even with one of them getting a vision about an attack happening that night, I just don’t think it was something spur of the moment. It had to have been planned for, or expected in some way. I mean- I don’t think they knew that Zarkon was going to betray us, or that the planet would be destroyed, because then surely they would have done something, or said something. But they must have known something would happen, so they made an emergency plan in case. I just wish I could ask them, I have so many questions. I don’t know if I’ll ever find out the answers.” Lee knows Keith can hear the frustration in her voice, but she can’t contain it. His hand begins to lightly stroke up and down on her back, and she relaxes again.

“Maybe you don’t need to know the answers. I know you want them, that you want to know, but you’re here, they saved you. And I’m really glad they did, because otherwise I wouldn’t have met you.” Keith says, and Lee feels warmth bloom in her chest. Keith twists to look up at her, and that warmth spreads to her cheeks at the intensity in his gaze. She clears her throat before continuing to explain, watching her fingers twine through his hair.

“My powers, and my connection with the lions have both grown, and that’s helped me to figure out some of it. Whatever they did that night, it was like how I shift forms into a lion, the way my energy changes, and I think that’s how I could somehow still be here after 10 000 years. Like, they stored my energy in the universe until the time was right. And I think it was the lions that were giving me the vague ideas of what I was supposed to be doing. They could sense that you were their new paladins, and so in a way they guided me to you, to help.” She lifts her gaze, looking directly into his eyes while she says the next part. 

“But, whatever got me to 10 000 years in the future, and meeting you guys; the Elders, visions, the Lions, whatever, you’re right. I don’t need all the answers about how I came to be on Earth. The more important question is how I was able to adjust, what got me through losing almost everything, and what continues to help me make it through every day. And I already know the answer to that question; it’s you Keith. You’re the one that’s always been there for me. When I was too scared to face my past, you helped me with my nickname so I could move away from it. So I didn’t have to be stuck as Leona, last member of a dead race, and instead I could be Lee, member of Team Voltron. I never feel safer, or happier, than when I’m with you. I love you so much Keith.” Lee dips down, and though they are at an awkward angle, and their lips don’t quite align, she still connects them in a gentle, passionate kiss. She pulls back slightly, and opens her eyes only to see Keith already staring at her. Her breath gets caught in her throat, because she can _see_ the love in his eyes.

“I love you Lee. More than I can even understand sometimes.” He whispers, and then he sits up and twists so he can face her. They stare at each other for a few moments, just admiring the still sleep rumpled looks of each other. Keith’s hair is a mess, all over the place from how she’d combed her fingers through it. They are both beginning to lean in, when Lee feels an insistent nudge in her mind. She pauses, checking for where it’s coming from, and realizes that it’s the Black Lion. With everything that had happened recently it’d been a while since she had meditated to try and find Shiro, but now it seemed Black felt one of the many strange readings near by and was insisting they go and check it out.  
“We have to go.” Lee says, smiling apologetically at Keith. He is watching her in concern, and when she says this his eyebrows furrow in confusion. “It’s the Black Lion, she wants us to go and check out something strange she’s feeling nearby. I think it-it may have something to do with Shiro.”

“Shiro? Are you sure?” Keith asks, and Lee crawls over him to get out of the bed. He follows her, moving to stand in front of her and meet her eyes. She can see the hope in his face, and she sighs.

“No. That’s why we need to go and check it out, now.” She says, and Keith nods. 

“Meet you at the Black Lion in 5?” He asks, and she grins, pecking him on the lips before agreeing. Keith heads out to go to his room and change, and Lee quickly get ready. She starts braiding her hair as she races down to the Black Lion’s hanger, and sees Keith is already waiting for her. The two enter the Black Lion, Keith letting her know that he got in contact with the others and told them they were going to investigate something strange that Black had picked up on.

 

Keith begins piloting Black in the direction of the strange reading, while Lee sits down to meditate. She quickly connects with Black, and when she tries her same technique to locate Shiro through the Black Lion, she is able to feel something nearby. She pushes further, focusing on the anomaly, until with a gasp she is able to briefly connect. She is immediately knocked out of her meditation by her own shock, but that’s fine, since she’s seen all she needs anyways. The connection was shaky, and it felt as though she were reaching through a dark, murky fog, but as Black suddenly gives out a massive roar, she knows the Lion has reached the same conclusion she has.

“What is it?” Keith asks, and Lee scrambles up to stand by his side.

“It’s Shiro. There, those coordinates!” Lee exclaims, and Keith quickly sends a message to the castle, flying through the portal as soon as it’s open. When they emerge, they see that in front of them is a Galra fighter jet, and Lee and Keith share giddy smiles. Lee spins and races down to the Black Lion’s hatch, unable to even wait to tell Keith her plan in person.

 _‘Open the hatch, I’m heading over now to make sure he’s okay.’_ Lee demands, forming into a lion so she can fly herself over. Keith doesn’t bother replying, just opens the hatch for her, and she knows that he is probably overwhelmed with emotion. She is too, feeling nervous, excited, practically giddy with joy, but also worried. Everyone will be happy to get Shiro back, she’s happy to get him back, but who knows what kind of condition he’s in? She flies over, landing on the nose of the fighter and looks in the hatch. She meets Shiro’s gaze, and gives him her best approximation of a smile. He smiles back, reaching for a button which opens the hatch. He floats out in his space suit, and Lee gently grabs hold of him with her teeth, before propelling the two of them back over to the Black Lion.

As soon as they are safe inside, Lee releases Shiro, and her lion form. She immediately drops to her knees beside him, pulling his head into her lap. Tears well up in her eyes, and she brushes aside his mass of hair to get a good look at his face. She closes her eyes, drawing her power up into her hands, and then into Shiro. He’s in rough shape, and so she does what she can while Keith pilots the Black Lion back into the castle. As soon as the Lion has landed in her hanger he is racing down, dropping down beside Shiro as well. He’s unconscious, had passed out almost as soon as she had started to bring him over to the Black Lion, and Lee opens her eyes, knowing he needs a healing pod now. 

The hatch opens, and the others all rush in, freezing when they see Lee and Keith kneeling beside Shiro. They’re all quickly snapped out of it when Lee tells them Shiro has to get into a pod, and then they are all practically tripping over each other to help carry him there. Once he’s in, everyone just gathers around his pod to stare at him, and relish the fact that he is back with them. Keith wraps his arm around Lee’s shoulders, pulling her into his side, and she cuddles in close, feeling emotionally drained.

 _‘He’s back Keith. We got him back.’_ She says, and he only squeezes her tighter. Lee revels in the warmth she feels in her chest, ignoring the slight bad feeling that’s trying to get her attention. She was able to open up to Keith and share more about her past, and now they had even finally got Shiro back. How could there be anything wrong in this moment?


	6. Episode 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, 'betcha didn't think I'd be posting a second chapter the same day, did you? This is why I didn't want to say anything about when I'd be posting this chapter, because I was hoping to get it all finished up today, but I figured better for it to be a great surprise then me be wrong and not have it done. Only 1 more episode, and then season 3 and this fic will be over!

Lee and Keith huddled together, waiting to jump out and begin attacking the Galran soldiers around them. Lee felt her heart beating hard in anticipation; it’d been a while since she was able to fight the old-fashioned way, hand to hand, instead of in lion form. She glanced over at Keith, to see his face set in concentration. 

_‘Ready?’_ He asks her mentally, and she bites her lip to hold back a grin.

_‘Ready.’_ She confirms, just barely able to catch a glimpse of a grin on his face, her own moving to echo it. They hear Lance speaking over the coms, and since he’s in position, that means it’s time to move. With a nod shared, the two simultaneously leap out and begin taking down Galra. Lee and Keith move like one, watching each other’s backs, and taking down Galra with ease. As the numbers begin to dwindle, they move to cover Pidge where she is hacking into the Galra computer. Keith and Allura have their shields up, while Hunk is blasting at Galra. Then, Pidge hacks in, and all the sentries fall to the ground, power cut off. Keith congratulates Pidge, and announces the base cleared. Another successful mission done, they all head back to the castle.

 

Once they’re back, Keith heads for Shiro’s room. Lee decides to hang back on the bridge with the others, and let Keith and Shiro have some time together. 

“So, Allura, your bayard’s form is pretty familiar. A whip huh?” Lee asks the princess, teasing tone in her voice. Allura looks over at her, sheepish smile on her face.

“Yes, well it is quite effective.” She replies, and Lee chuckles.

“Yeah no kidding. I thought I might offer you some tips on how to use it, but you don’t need them.” Lee says, and Allura beams in pride at the compliment.

“Thank you, but why do you think I had any idea what to do? I sat in and watched many of your training sessions when you were learning, and so really you are the one who helped me.” Allura tells her, and the two girls share a fond smile. At that moment Keith enters the bridge again, and with a quick look to Allura, who waves her on, Lee follows Keith to his chair. As he is bent over doing something on the screen, she moves around to lean against the side of the console.

“So, how is he?” She asks, and Keith sighs, looking over at her. 

“He doesn’t know how he got on the Galra ship, can’t remember anything between disappearing, and then waking up there. Other than that, I don’t know. He seems, different, almost.” Keith says, and Lee feels a spike in the bad feeling that hasn’t left her since they found Shiro. 

“Keith, there’s something I need to t-…” She’s cut off as everyone goes quiet, and Keith suddenly straightens up. She turns, following his gaze to see Shiro walking onto the bridge. He looks better, he’s cleaned up and gotten dressed in his old clothes, but he looks different. His hair is cut differently, and his lower arms are exposed, but its still undoubtedly Shiro standing there, so once again Lee brushes off her feeling.

They all talk some more, and eventually end up deciding on a plan of action. They’ll head for the quadrant where Lotor has been spotted, while Pidge and Hunk make something to detect the comet emission to find a more specific location.

 

In the meantime, there’s nothing to be done, so Lee and Keith both head for his room. As soon as they enter Lee moves towards his bed, flopping onto it face first. She rolls over to see Keith watching her with an amused smile, and she sticks her tongue out at him. He chuckles, turning to hang up his jacket, and then there is knocking on his door. Lee sits up, and she and Keith share a curious gaze.

“Yeah?” Keith calls, and the door opens to reveal Lance. He begins speaking as he enters the room.

“Hey man. I just wanted to talk to you because- well because I’ve been worrying about something.” Lance says, and then Lee clears her throat. Lance looks startled, having not noticed her yet, and she slides over to sit on the edge of the bed.

“I’ll leave you two to talk. I can come back later Keith.” She says, but before she can get up, Lance speaks up again.

“No! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you guys. If anything, I should be the one to leave.” Lance begins, but Lee shakes her head emphatically, so he quickly drops that idea. “Okay, well then, Lee I don’t mind if you stay and listen. Actually, it might be nice to get your opinion and advice too.”

Lee nods, settling in to sit on the edge of the bed. Keith and Lance remain standing, and Keith folds his arms across his chest.

“Well Lance, whatever it is must really be bothering you if you’re coming to me.” He says, and Lee shakes her head at her boyfriend’s back.

“Well, you’re the leader now, right?” Lance says, and Keith drops his head down. Lee bites her lip, but chooses to stay out of the conversation as much as she can. Lance may have said she could stay, but this still felt like a conversation for the two of them, at least for the moment.

“I guess.” Keith answers softly.

“I’ve been doing some math. With Shiro back, that makes 6 paladins. But there are only 5 lions, and if I’m right, that’s 1 paladin too many.” Lance explains, illustrating the numbers with his hands.

“Solid math.” Keith says, and Lee has to clench her hands in her lap tightly. Keith is a good leader, and although he isn’t the greatest with people, he has his good moments. This just, isn’t one of them, yet.

“Look, when Shiro takes over the Black Lion, you’re going to want your Red Lion back. If I get a lion, that means I’d have to take Blue back from Allura, but she’s progressed a lot faster than any of us did. She might even be able to unlock powers we don’t even know of.” Lee bites her lip, seeing the insecurity on Lance’s face. After a minor misunderstanding a little while ago, Lee had resolved to make sure Lance knew he was a valued member of the team. She clearly hadn’t done a great job, if this was leading where she thought it was.

“That’s true.” Keith comments, and then Lee understands. He is prompting Lance to get everything out, to say all that he has to say so that Keith can hear all of it, and address it all. Keith really does know people a lot better than most would think.

“So, maybe the best thing I can do for the team is step aside.” Lance says, and Lee feels her heart ache for him.

“What are you talking about?” Keith asks.

“This isn’t a participation game. This is war, and you want your best soldiers on the front lines.” Lance says, and Keith starts talking almost immediately after he’s done.

“Stop worrying about who flies what, and just focus on your missions. Things will work themselves out.” Keith says, and Lance drops his gaze to the floor.

“Okay.” He replies, and then Lee can take it no longer. She senses that the conversation is over, but there are things Lance said that she can’t just let go.

“Lance.” She calls, grabbing his attention. He lifts his head, looking over at her curiously. She keeps her voice soft, gentle, and an open look on her face. “What makes you think you aren’t one of our best soldiers?”

Lance stares, blinking, but silent for a few long moments. Long enough that Keith chuckles walking over to seat himself behind Lee on the bed, pulling her back to lean against his chest. She doesn’t look away from Lance, whose mouth is now flapping open and shut as he tries to gather himself enough to talk.

“W-what?” He asks, and Keith muffles another laugh against the back of her neck. She jabs her elbow back, and hears Keith grunt as she hits his ribs.

“You’re the team’s sharpshooter. No one else can do what you do. And I’m not just talking about your skills with your bayard. On the gas planet, you helped everyone keep it together. Helped knock some sense into Mr. Stubborn back here.” She says, tilting her head back to knock it gently against Keith’s. He grumbles indignantly, but she ignores him. Lance is shuffling awkwardly, not looking at the two of them. Lee removes herself from Keith’s grasp, stepping forward to place her hands on Lance’s shoulders. He looks up at her at the feeling, and she smiles at him.

“Worst case scenario, I’m sure we can just set up some kind of rotating schedule for who gets to pilot what lion. But no matter what, you don’t need to worry. Every single member of team Voltron, paladin or not, is important. To the mission, to the universe, but more importantly, to each other. We’re a family now.” She pulls him into a hug, wrapping her arms around his neck. Lance is hesitant, but after a moment he returns it, ducking his head down to tuck it in her shoulder. She feels him let out a deep breath, some of the tension bleeding out of him. They stay like that a few moments before they hear a throat clear behind them. They pull apart and Lee rolls her eyes with a grin, Lance grinning back. 

“Thanks. Both of you.” Lance says, before heading for the door. Keith calls to him before he can exit though.

“Hey Lance. Next time leave the math to Pidge.” He teases, and Lance smiles once more before heading out. The door closes behind him, and Lee turns to face Keith. She walks over to the bed, and he slides to the edge of it, wrapping his arms around her waist once she’s close enough. He buries his face in her shirt, and she wraps her arms around his head.

“You’re a good leader.” Lee says, and Keith’s arms tighten around her waist.

“Shiro’s back. He’s the leader.” He replies, and she shakes her head, then realizes he can’t see her.

“Shiro was the leader. Then when he was gone, you stepped up. And now you’re the leader. Just because he’s back, doesn’t mean you have to step down.” Lee states, and Keith shrugs, not commenting. Lee sighs, then bends down to press a kiss to the top of his head. “Well, whatever you decide to do, I support you.”

Suddenly, they hear Hunk asking someone to move the castle, since he and Pidge have managed to track the comet. Lee releases her grip on Keith’s head and he stands, the two of them heading for the bridge. When they get close to the base, both Keith and Shiro start to speak to outline a plan at the same time. Keith immediately stops, allowing Shiro to make the decision. Keith tells Shiro to take the Black Lion, and Lee looks sharply over at him, but says nothing. She said she’d support him, and if this is his decision then so be it. But she isn’t happy about it, and the bad feeling seems to spike in agreement.

The lions head out, except for Black, and then Shiro comes on the coms to say it won’t respond to him. He says Keith will have to lead the mission instead, and Keith agrees. He sends a quick look Lee’s way, and she nods, grinning. She and Keith enter the Black Lion, and they head down to join the team. The paladins all hop in their little speedsters, having left the lions a fair distance away. However, since there is only room for one in them, Lee forms her disk. She relishes the chance to get to use it again, as now she is usually either flying around herself, or being flown inside a lion.

 

The speedsters are left hidden behind some rocks, and the team ventures onto the ship. Hunk leads them to where the comet should be, but instead all that’s there is a ship. They realize Lotor has already made the ship from the comet, and Keith want to go after Lotor, but Shiro insists they go back for their lions to destroy the ship. When instead he suggests he search for Lotor himself, Shiro again shuts him down, and the other all agree. Keith reluctantly agrees, but then Lee speaks up.

“Wait. Keith, I can go and search the ship for Lotor, while you guys all go back to get the lions. That way, you all stay together and can form Voltron, and I can see if I can find out anything.” Lee suggests, and Keith shakes his head.

“Lee, that’s too dangerous. You can’t go by yourself.” Keith states, and the others are all quiet.

“I can be sneaky, and I can take care of myself. This is the smartest move, but it’s your decision.” Lee says. Keith is taken aback, and he instinctively wants to tell her to just come back with them. But then he realizes that Lee is putting this in his hands because she trusts his decisions as a leader. As much as he wants his girlfriend to not put herself in danger, he knows that as a member of team Voltron, Lee is perfectly strong and capable.

“Alright. But be careful, and stay in contact. If you find Lotor, don’t engage; let us know and someone will come support you.” Keith instructs, and Lee nods. 

“Wait a minute, Lee, Keith.” Shiro starts, but Lee cuts him off.

“Heading out, I’ll keep on coms, and if I have to switch forms I’ll keep in contact through Keith. Good luck!” She calls, before taking off for one of the exits, so she can begin searching the ship. She’s barely made it anywhere, when suddenly the other paladins are shouting over the coms.

“Lee, we need you here, we ran into trouble on our way out!” Keith yells, and she turns, sprinting for the exit.

“I’m on my way, I’ll be right there!” She calls. She skids around corners, and as she gets close enough to hear the sounds of fighting, she shifts form. She opens her mouth, letting out a massive roar which echoes throughout the ship. Their enemies are stunned for a second.

“What was that?” The big one asks, and then they hear the thumping sound of something large approaching. The paladins, knowing what it is, begin to inch their way towards the exit as the others are focused on what may be coming. Suddenly the large form of a white lion bursts into the room, sending a blast of energy that scatters the four enemies. The paladins take the chance to race off back to their lions, while Lee distracts Lotor’s fighters.

 

Lee lunges and swipes and blasts, constantly moving to avoid being injured by the four women. They are all skilled, and it takes all her focus to avoid their attacks. After giving the team a few minutes to get to their lions, Lee sends a final blast that has all four of them falling back, then she takes off out of the ship. She lets Keith know she’s out, and he swings by to pick her up before they form Voltron. She rides along, watching in silence as Shiro keeps arguing with and undermining Keith’s decisions. She doesn’t speak up, because she’s angry, and confused at Shiro’s behaviour, and she doesn’t want to be another voice complicating things even more.

Eventually, Keith maneuvers Voltron so that the ship Lotor made from the comet ends up destroying the teludav crystal, although they then blast Voltron afterwards. Keith wants to go after them, but Shiro instructs them to return to the castle, because something seems strange. 

Lee looks down to see Keith with his jaw clenched and brows furrowed. He is tense, hands clenching on Black’s controls. Lee places a hand on his shoulder, and he relaxes slightly at the touch, only to immediately tense up again when he gets a look at her face. The seriousness of her expression is reflected in her voice when she speaks to him telepathically.

_‘After we get back to the castle, we need to talk. There’s something I need to tell you about.’_


	7. Episode 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, since this episode is mostly the story of the old paladins, and Lee already knows that story, I decided to do something different. I'm giving you guys a flashback into one of Lee's memories from before the destruction of Altea and the loss of her planet. So, when you see the line break, that is when the flashback starts, and the next one signifies where the flashback ends and the story goes back to the present. I hope you guys enjoy this look at Lee's past, and her relationship with some of the old paladins!

There was a tense silence in the cockpit of the Black Lion, as it flew back towards the castle. Lee wanted to wait until they were safely back in the Black Lion’s hanger before starting this conversation, and so the two waited, both lost in thought. Once they’d made it back, and the Black Lion was safely landed, the quiet became almost oppressive, as neither made a move to start the conversation. Lee observed Keith, who was still staring forward out the cockpit. His hands were clenched tightly around the controls still, and she could see how tense he was. 

“Keith…” She called his name quietly, and she could see how he tensed up even more, before slowly removing his hands from the controls and placing them in his lap. He still didn’t turn to look at her, staring down instead, and Lee remained where she was, slightly back and to the side of his chair, leaning against the consoles around the outside of the cockpit. 

“What is it you want to tell me?” Keith asks, and even his voice sounds tense, strained. Beyond that though, she can’t pick out the emotions he’s feeling, and the connection between them is firmly closed, not giving her any clues either.

Lee sighs, breath gusting out of her. “I’m not sure how to say it. I need to say this, but I don’t think you’ll like it very much, and I don’t want to hurt you.”

There’s a few moments of quiet, and she can hear Keith suck in a harsh breath. Lee waits anxiously, not sure whether she should just continue, or if she should wait to see what he had to say. She waits, still trying to organize her thoughts, to arrange them in the way that will make the most sense. Before she’s got them set, Keith speaks up.

“I think I may know what this is about.” He says, and Lee blinks, surprised.

“You do?” She asks, and Keith nods.

“Yeah. And, it’s okay Lee. Just say it straight out.” He urges, and so she does.

“I think there’s something wrong with Shiro.” She blurts out. Keith had tensed impossibly tighter the second she’d started speaking, but as he registered her words he slowly released his tension his muscles relaxing.

“What?” He asks, and she hears the shock in his voice, rushing to explain herself.

“He’s been different since the moment he got back, and at first I just brushed it off, figured it was because of him being captured again, of course he’d be acting funny. But he just doesn’t seem like himself, not like the Shiro who I’ve gotten to know at least. He had no right to act the way he did out there, talking over you and ignoring you, when he wasn’t even out there! And the way the Black Lion wouldn’t let him pilot her? That’s bizarre too. I know you’ve been its paladin for a while, but if he were still the sae Shiro, he should have still been recognized as a Black paladin. Even 10 000 years later and completely different, Zarkon was still recognized as a Black paladin. Something just doesn’t seem right.” A torrent of words escapes Lee as she tries to convey all her suspicions and strange things she’s noticed.

“Lee…” Keith begins to say something, but Lee bursts into speech again, wanting to get all of her thoughts out before he says anything.

“And I know you and Shiro are close, that’s why I was worried about bringing it up, I didn’t want to cause suspicions and problems if it was nothing. You were so relieved when we found him, we all were, and I didn’t want to ruin that, but I just, I don’t believe that Shiro would act like that. Shiro cares about and supports all of us, but you and him have a special bond. Kind of like me and Allura. And that Shiro isn’t the one we rescued. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but I know that something is off.” Lee finishes her explanation, just now noticing that Keith had at some point turned the chair to face her. There was a neutral expression on his face, and he was calmly watching her. Seeing that she had finished, Keith moves to start talking, and it’s Lee’s turn to tense in anticipation.

“I agree.” Keith says simply, and Lee blinks at him in shock. “I tried to tell myself it was just me feeling weird about him being back, since I had been acting as the leader while he was missing. But you noticed it too.”

Lee lets out a sigh of relief, but then a frown takes over her face, her brows furrowing. “So, what do we do?”

“Nothing yet. We don’t have solid proof, and we don’t have any idea what exactly it is that’s off. I think our best course of action is just to wait, and observe him until we can figure out what’s going on.” Lee nods in agreement, and quiet descends on them once again. They eventually both leave the Black Lion, separating to get changed and cleaned up after the battle.

They meet back up with the rest of the team, and Lee moves to stand beside Keith. Even though they are standing beside each other, it feels almost like Keith is trying to keep his distance from her. He had already left to meet up with everyone instead of waiting and walking with her, and though he turned and gave her a smile, he didn’t reach out for her when she joined him. She figures it’s just a result of their conversation, and focuses in on what everyone is saying. Coran begins to explain the story about the origin of the original paladins, but having already heard the story, and from the sources themselves, Lee doesn’t bother to hear it again. Her thoughts drift off, and instead she falls back into one of her own memories.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leona walked down the hall, confused and a little hurt. Normally at least one of the paladins was waiting to meet her when she showed up for her training, and if they weren’t busy, often there would be multiple of them there to greet her. Even though she’d been coming up for years, and could find her way with her eyes closed, they still insisted on escorting her. Of course, sometimes they were busy training, or got called out on a mission, but normally, there was someone there. She’d come to expect someone to be there awaiting her arrival, and especially so today. After all, today was her birthday. She’d spent time with her parents in the morning, was now coming up for her usual training session with the paladins, and afterwards she was going to visit with Allura.

She supposed she shouldn’t have expected for them to remember that today was her birthday, after all, they’re all very busy people with plenty on their minds. It really wasn’t a big deal, she tried to reassure herself, but that didn’t diminish the hurt she was feeling. She continued on nonetheless, and soon found herself outside their usual meeting room. The doors whooshed open as she approached, and she entered the room only to stop in surprise at what she saw. The paladins were gathered around a table which had multiple plates of different foods, and in the center of the table was a wrapped present.

“What-…?” Leona begins to question, but is quickly interrupted.

“Happy birthday!” The paladins all cheer, and Leona stares at them in disbelief.

“I thought you guys forgot.” She says, walking over to the table to join them. An arm is dropped onto her shoulders, and she turns to gaze up at the paladin beside her.

“As if we would forget such an important day! What are we, monsters?” Zarkon asks, and Leona giggles. He ruffles her hair before releasing her, reaching out to grab the present and set it directly in front of her.

“You guys did not have to get me a present.” She says, looking up and around at each of the paladins. They’re all smiling warmly at her, and she gives them a wide grin in return.

“We did not.” Alfor says, and she raises an eyebrow, glancing pointedly at the present in front of her. He chuckles in response, before continuing. “We made it. All of us were involved in some way, whether through design, materials, or the actual construction.”

“Now open it up!” Exclaims Blaytz, and Leona reaches out for the present. She carefully opens it, revealing a pendant. The center is a white lion head, with glittering green eyes, and its surrounded by a ring of red. She carefully lifts it from the box, cradling it in her hands.

“It is beautiful.” She comments, fingers brushing lightly over the lion’s head. 

“It is not just jewelry.” Alfor says, and she looks up at him curiously. “Try pushing some of your energy into it.”

Leona’s brow scrunches up slightly, her gaze flitting from one paladin to another. They all give her encouraging smiles and nods, so she closes her eyes, concentrating, and sends a wisp of her energy through her hands and into the pendant. She opens her eyes and watches in awe as the red ring detaches, forming into a red baton. The lion head spins, stretching out into a circular disk. She looks up in shock, and the paladins laugh at the look on her face.

“The disk is for transportation; you stand on it, and control it by shifting your weight. It hovers, and should be able to tackle most terrains.” Alfor explains, and then Zarkon jumps in.

“The baton was my idea. It can also extend out into a whip. I will be personally training you to use it.” He tells her, and she smiles up at him.

“Wow. Thank you. All of you. This is amazing.” She says, and they smile back at her. They tell her they decided not to train today in favour of celebrating her birthday. Instead, they eat the snacks and just chat and have fun. Before they separate for the day, Zarkon informs her that he will begin her weapon training the next day they meet.

 

Leona walks down the halls, once again alone, although this time she can’t control the giddy feeling. She’s extremely excited about her weapon training with Zarkon today, and is practically skipping down the hall. As she is coming up to a turn in the hall, she hears the voices of Zarkon and Alfor. She is about to turn the corner and greet them, when she hears her name. She pauses, curiosity driving her to stay hidden around the corner and try to hear what they are saying. As she listens in, she realizes they are arguing.

“I just do not think it is necessary that she learn just yet. She is still young, she has plenty of time to learn how to fight if she wants to, when she is older.” 

“You are acting as if she is still that little child who snuck into the lion hanger. I know you feel a responsibility towards her, since she is your daughter’s best friend, but we all care about her. I only have her best interests at heart.”

“Then why would you want to put her in danger? If you train her to fight, then she will want to go out and fight.”

“She is going to want to do that regardless. And when that day comes, she can either be helpless, or she can protect herself. I am going to make sure it is the second.”

Their voices fade away, and Leona waits a few minutes longer, until she’s sure they’re gone before continuing on her way. She isn’t sure what to think about the argument she’s overheard, but she knows she still wants to learn to fight, even if her excitement has been diminished slightly. 

When she makes it to their usual meeting room she greets the other paladins, before she and Zarkon head for the training room. Once there he gets her to form her baton, moving to grab a stick and stand in front of her. He demonstrates a few simple moves, then urges her to practice them herself.

Leona attempts to recreate what he did, but ends up just swinging the baton side to side. She drops it, bending down to pick it up, but doesn’t continue with the exercises.

“What is wrong?” Zarkon asks, and her hands clench around the baton.

“I look stupid.” She mutters, gaze firmly on the ground.

“So?” Leona’s head snaps up to face Zarkon in surprise. “Did you think you would start and immediately be an expert? This is the first time you have attempted to use a weapon, of course you are going to look silly at first. But, work hard, keep training, and one day you will be a great fighter.”

Leona narrows her eyes at him, taking in a deep breath. She releases it slowly, before nodding, determination filling her. She continues to practice the moves, Zarkon slowly circling around her. 

“Your grip is wrong.” He says from behind her. Leona sighs, her shoulder slumping. He doesn’t let her get too dejected though. “Here, I will show you. And, I will show you something cool too.”

He steps forward, reaching in to fix her grip on the baton. He places his hand over hers, guiding her into flicking her wrist out, and the baton elongates out into a whip. Leona feels excitement well up inside her, and she starts immediately swinging the whip around.

“Whoa!” Zarkon exclaims, stepping backwards as she starts to get a little wild. She stops, turning to face him sheepishly, but can’t stop the laugh that escapes at his wide-eyed look.

“Sorry. I got excited.” She informs him, and he chuckles.

“I could tell.” He replies. 

They end up staying in the training room for about an hour, and Zarkon has Leona just practice switching from baton to whip and back, and repeating the simple moves he showed her.

“Alright, that is enough for today.” Zarkon says, and Leona groans. 

“But I have made no progress yet!” She exclaims, and Zarkon simply smiles in amusement.

“You are only just getting started. With enough training, one day you may even become as great as me.” He teases, and Leona grins at him.

“I bet that one day I will be even better than you.” She declares, and Zarkon chuckles.

“I have no doubts.” He states. Leona then dashes forward, wrapping her arms around him. Caught off guard, Zarkon simply stands there stiffly as Leona continues to hug him for a few moments, before releasing him. 

“Thank you Zarkon.” She says, before turning and racing out of the training room. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lee snaps back to the present as Coran reaches the end of the story. She focuses back into the conversation, missing the concerned side glance Keith gives her.

“So that’s Lotor’s plan. To cross into other universes and gather the purest quintessence possible.” Pidge says.

“No matter what, we have to stop him.” Keith states.

**Author's Note:**

> And another season, another story done! So, I am finally done with season 3, and I am planning on doing season 4. However, given that season 5 comes out March 2nd, I don't think it's likely that I will get it all out before then. I do have quite a few ideas about where I want to go with season 4 though, and I'm really excited. So, just to tease you all a little, here are some things I'm thinking I want to include in season 4: how Lee's presence, and their relationship influences Keith when it comes to him leaving; Lee's reaction and having to deal with him being gone; Lee bonding with other members of the team; Lee and Matt, and their interactions.   
> That's all I'm gong to give you, and yeah I know it's a little evil, but guys I am so looking forward to writing this next season! So, I hope you guys enjoyed this installment of The White Lion, and that you're just as excited for the next one as I am!


End file.
